A Sharp Development
by Erich Zann III
Summary: Sam and her family have moved to Royal Woods, but they're not out of the woods yet. Sam is still suffering from the trauma of her experience and Simon is still shifting between paralyzing guilt, anger and resentment. Her family is back together, but things aren't back to normal yet. How will they carry on with such painful scars?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: A New Home

"Sammy… Wake up." Erik said gently.

"We're turning into our new home." Sam groaned, her eyes fluttering open to see an attractive looking two story house with white panels and a grey roof. It had a front porch and a beautiful lawn that looked like the previous owners had taken meticulous care of it. Sam was fairly sure that her family wouldn't be nearly so fastidious. She sighed, seeing the moving truck pull in after them.

She knew she needed to help bring stuff in and unpack. But she just wanted to sleep. She wanted to go to bed and never have to wake up again. She looked at the barely healed scars on her wrists and arms, crisscrossing up and down them. Proof that this had all happened. Proof that it wasn't just a nightmare. Proof that she wasn't alright, that she would never be alright. She was a freak. She was a perverted, disgusting abomination, and if anyone knew, they would hate her.

She could never tell. Nobody could ever know. Luke was sweet to tell her to just be herself. He was trying to help, but it wasn't in her best interest the last time to be herself. It had gotten her stuck in an endless loop of torture and abuse that ended with her stuck in that alleyway, being violated. She hated remembering the disgusting feeling of their hands all over her, of their mouths on her, of Saoirse's cruel laughter and her contemptuous face as she kicked Sam over and over again.

After fifteen minutes of just sitting in the car, Amanda got Sam's attention.

"Sammy… Would you like to come inside?" Amanda asked gently. Sam shook her head. She was tired, exhausted. She just wanted the pain to stop. She just wanted to be able to rest, to be released from everything that was troubling her.

For now though, maybe going for a walk would help her.

"Do you mind if I go for a walk?" Sam asked nervously. Amanda smiled.

"Okay, sweetie. Your dad and I can get the stuff out of the moving van with the movers. Do you want to choose which room will be yours? Simon said he doesn't mind if you get first choice."

"Does it matter which room is mine? It's just a place to sleep." Sam said cynically. Amanda sighed.

"Well… We have a floor plan. This is Erik's and my room, the Master Bedroom on the first floor." She said, pointing to a large bedroom with a bathroom attached.

"This is one bedroom, on the top floor, facing the backyard. And this is the other one, facing the front yard. It's your choice." Amanda said. Sam sighed.

"I guess I'll take the one facing the backyard." She said. Amanda nodded, kissing Sam lightly on the cheek and smiling at Sam.

"Okay… Well, enjoy your walk. If you get lost, this is our address. I'm sure someone in town can tell you how to get home." Sam nodded and walked off slowly, not really having a destination in mind. She took her guitar with her, just in case she felt a desire to play when she was out.

She walked past a building that looked like an arcade. She used to love video games. So she went in and saw a boy with stark white hair and an African American boy with thick, round glasses playing Dance Dance Revolution. It was obvious just at first glance that the white haired boy was much better. The African American kid wasn't bad, but the white haired boy was just killing it. She took a deep breath. They were much younger than her, but maybe she could try to be friendly with them.

They did look like they were about Simon's age, so she definitely had experience dealing with kids their age.

"Excuse me…" Sam said nervously, wringing her hands as she went over to them. They finished up the level. The white haired boy won by a mile.

"Yeah?" The white haired boy asked.

"Do you mind if I play the winner?" She asked. They smiled.

"Yeah! Sure! My name's Lincoln and this is Clyde. Together, we're…" Lincoln started. Then they spoke together, high fiving.

"Clincoln McCloud!" Sam couldn't help but giggle at this. They were adorable.

She was sure that Simon would get along great with these two. They were dorky, but cute at the same time. Clyde stepped down.

"Go on ahead. What's your name? I don't think we've met before."

"I just moved here from Ohio." Sam said. Lincoln nodded. He had noticed a slight accent on her. He racked his brain, trying to figure out where Ohio was.

"Ummm… Ohio, right…"

"I lived about five hours away from here… One state down. It's nice to meet you, Lincoln and Clyde." She said, stepping up on the dance floor and putting in a quarter, watching the screen flash as it gave directions and they made their selection for dances.

It started counting down and the two began dancing. Lincoln was good… Actually, Sam had always loved dancing, and Dance Dance was a game that she was really, really good at. She played against Simon, Simon's friends, her friends all the time and had gotten really skilled at it. In the end, Lincoln was left gaping. Sam had been behind in the beginning because she was a bit distracted. But she caught up quickly, leaving Lincoln behind.

"Good job, Lincoln… I had fun… You're about my brother's age. Right?" Sam asked. Lincoln shrugged.

"Well, how old is your brother?" He asked.

"Eight." Sam said.

"I'm nine. So pretty close. What about you? Well first of all, what's your name?" He asked.

"I'm Sam Sharp… I have a brother named Simon… Do you two have any brothers or sisters?"

"Well… My dads have a cat named Cleopawtra." Clyde said. Sam giggled at the pun. These two had a strange way about them of bringing out the fun in things. She had just wanted to take a walk to clear her head, but now she was actually having some fun. She knew as soon as she got home and was alone, she would be miserable again. But for now, this wasn't so bad.

"And you, Lincoln?"  
"I have nine sisters. The oldest is fifteen and the youngest is two, and I'm pretty sure my mom is pregnant with the eleventh kid right now. Knowing my luck, it'll be another girl. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with girls. I just… Kind of wish I had a brother. My sister, Luna is the same age as you. Maybe you and she will be friends." Lincoln said.

Sam couldn't help but blush slightly. Lincoln was really sweet. He reminded her a lot of Simon. He was so genuine and kind and didn't seem like he had a mean bone in his body.

"I'm gonna keep walking around town." Sam said. "It was nice to meet you, Lincoln and Clyde."

"Hey, wait! Maybe Clyde and I can show you around!" Lincoln said.

"My mom won't be coming to pick me up until this evening.

"I'll call her now to tell her I'm showing a friend around town." Sam gasped. Friend? He probably wouldn't want to be friends with her if he knew what a sick, perverted degenerate she was. He was bound to find out eventually. But that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy the time until he did.

"Hey, Mom… There's this new girl in town… She looks like she's older than me… I don't know exactly how old she is! You always told me it's impolite to ask a lady her age.

"Her name is Sam Sharp… Yeah… Yeah… She just… Yeah, Clyde and I are gonna show her around town… Yeah… She just moved here from Ohio… I don't know where in Ohio. She said about five hours away… Uh huh… Yeah, we'll be done by 5… Of course I haven't met her parents, but she's a good dancer and Clyde seems to like her…" He said that last part as if it settled everything.

"Yeah, I've got my danger whistle on me." He turned to Sam and shrugged his shoulders, shaking his head. Sam couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, we'll be careful. Okay, I love you too, Mom. Bye." Lincoln said. He sighed as he went back over to Sam.

"My mom is a bit overprotective. Are your Mom and Dad like that?"

"They are now. They didn't used to be. It's a long story and I don't really want to talk about it." Sam said, cutting the conversation short. Lincoln and Clyde went out and turned right.

"This is the best arcade in town. It's got good pizza too. We have a movie theater right over here, and a mall right down the road… I dunno what kind of things you like to buy… You look like you play guitar. Luna is big into guitar, drums, keyboard… Really any kind of rock instrument.

"She'd be a better person to ask where to get supplies, but there is a store at the mall for that if you're interested." Lincoln said.

"The park is right over here." Clyde said. "Great place for taking a loved one for a romantic picnic… Too bad that louse, Bobby got his claws in her!" Clyde growled.

"Alright, easy buddy." Lincoln calmed Clyde down a bit.

They took her through the town, then sat down on a bench for a while. Sam sighed, taking out her guitar and tuning it before playing California Girls for the boys, who sang along with it, drawing a small crowd, who applauded at the end. After about half an hour, they packed up and moved on. Sam had no idea where she was, though.

"Um… Do you think you could… Help me get home? I'm afraid I'm completely lost now." Sam laughed sheepishly. Lincoln smiled.

"Sure." He called up his mom again.

"Hey, Mom… We're at the bench on 3rd and Parker… Maybe you could pick Sam up as well? Yeah, she doesn't know how to get home from here… Yeah, fine… How old are you, Sam?"

"Thirteen."

"She's thirteen. Yeah, same grade as Luna. Okay. Thanks. See you soon. Bye." Lincoln said.

"She'll be here in about five minutes." Lincoln said. They talked for the five minutes, and Lincoln and Clyde learned a little bit about Columbus, Ohio before Rita showed up in Vanzilla.

"Hey, Mom!" Lincoln said. He climbed in the back to see Lucy, Lola, Lana and Lisa in various seats.

"Hello, Sam Sharp was your name, right?" Lincoln's mom asked.

"Yes, Ma'am." Sam said timidly. Rita smiled. She seemed like a nice girl.

"Where do you live, Sam?" Rita asked. Sam handed her a piece of paper with her address on it.

"Oh! Wow! This is barely ten minutes away from our house by foot. I'll have you home in a jiffy." Rita said. Sam smiled nervously.

"Thank you, Ms…"  
"Loud. Rita Loud."

"It's nice to meet you, Ms. Loud." Sam said. "Lincoln tells me you have ten children." Sam said. Rita laughed sheepishly.

"Yes… We do have a big family… And there's another one on the way. We don't know if it's a boy or a girl yet, but they should be here pretty soon. Lincoln is hoping for a boy, right, Linc?" Lincoln blushed.

"Oh, I just want them to be born healthy."

"Well… This is Lucy, the girl in black, writing in her diary. This is Lola, Lana, and Lisa.

"You're so pretty, Sam! You have hair like Rapunzel!" Lola said, her eyes sparkling with excitement at Sam's long, blonde hair. Sam smiled.

"Thank you. I actually need to get a haircut. I promised myself that I would donate it to Locks of Love if I… Well… If I… N-never mind." Sam muttered.

"I'm Lana!" Lana said in a raspy voice.

"You wanna meet Roachy?" She asked, pulling a cockroach out of her pocket and holding it out to Sam, who shrieked in shock and disgust and swatted the bug away.  
"Roachy!" Lana protested, diving under the seat to find her pet.

"Lucy… Don't be rude. Say hello."

"Your hair is lovely, but your aura shows a darkness that has already begun to consume you. I recommend a good exorcist. I can make some recommendations, or I can come do the exorcism myself." Lucy said, her voice soft and melancholy. Sam shivered slightly.

"Lisa doesn't really talk yet. She's brilliant. She's already reading and comprehending high school material, so we know she understands what we say. But she hasn't quite gotten to speaking yet. She'll get there when she's ready." Lisa opened her mouth and some small sounds came out that sounded like half-formed words. They never quite turned into a sentence though.

"It's very nice to meet you all… Ooh… Looks like my Dad is waiting outside for me." Sam said, hissing in nervousness. She sighed as she got out of the car and said hi to her father. Rita looked at Erik. He was tall and extremely strong looking. The blonde mother pulled to the side of the road and got out of the car.

"Hello, Mr. Sharp… My name is Rita Loud… I'm sorry for bringing your daughter home so late. My… Nine year old son and his friend wanted to show Sam around the town." Rita said.

Erik smiled.

"Not at all. Thank your son for me for showing Sammy around, and thank you for bringing her home… We were starting to worry that she had gotten lost." Erik said, shaking Rita's hand politely. The two adults talked for a while. Lincoln knew that he could probably get out of the car and walk home before the two of them even finished talking.

Eventually, Rita finished talking and got back in the car, driving everyone home. It wasn't until they got there that Rita noticed Sam's guitar still sitting on the floor of Vanzilla. She sighed.

"Well… Luna can bring it to Sam on Monday, right? Didn't you say they were the same age?" Lincoln nodded, and the kids went inside, with Rita taking the guitar with her up to Luna's and Luan's room.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: A New Look

"Hey! We're home!" Rita called. Lynn Sr. came out, hugging and kissing Rita.

"Hey, sweetie… You took longer than I expected." He said. Rita nodded.

"There was someone we took back home. She was a bit lost and she didn't live too far away from us." Rita said. "Is dinner almost ready?"

"Sure thing, honey!" Lynn Sr. said cheerfully, pulling the dinner out of the oven and setting it on the table.

"Kids!" Rita called. "Dinner!" Suddenly, there was a massive rumble from the house and everyone crowded down to the kitchen, sitting around the table.

"So, what did you get up to today, Mom?" Luna asked.

"Oh, well… I went shopping. Lynn's torn right through her knees again in the pants department. We really need to find a pair that will accommodate her active lifestyle." Rita said.

"What about you, Little Bro?" Luna asked.

"I met a new girl at the arcade." Lincoln said. "She's really good at Dance Dance Revolution, and she's really cool." Lincoln said. Lynn laughed mockingly.

"Stinkin' has a girlfriend!" She teased.

"I do not!" Lincoln turned a deep shade of pink. "She's like Luna's age!" He protested.

"Ahh… So you like em older, huh?" Lynn continued. Lincoln growled, really embarrassed now.

"I-it's not like that! Clyde and I were just showing her around town! She just moved here!" He complained. Rita stepped in.

"Come on, Lynn… Ease up… Speaking of the new girl, Luna… Could you take her guitar back to her on Monday?" Rita asked. Luna nodded.

"She plays guitar? I like her already!" Luna said with a laugh. Rita chuckled as well.  
"Yeah… She's really sweet. She met Lola, Lana, Lucy, Lisa and Lincoln. They moved from somewhere out of state." Rita said.

"Really? Right in the middle of the school year?" Luna asked, raising an eyebrow. Rita shrugged.

"People have all sorts of reasons for moving. I'm sure Sam's parents did as well." She said. Luna sighed, finishing her dinner and going upstairs to practice her guitar. She had really gotten into it when she was nine, and now she was practically a virtuoso at a bunch of different instruments.

Luna had always been musically inclined, but recently, she had thrown herself into music. Guitar, Violin, Drums, Keyboard, Bass, any kind of instrument, really. She was even working on different big band instruments, like trumpet and flute, though she didn't like them as much. Recently, she had begun to work on 12 string guitars, and learning how to pluck guitar with her fingers rather than a pick. Her fingertips were bleeding more often than not. But she was getting really good.

Lincoln sighed. Luna had always been his favorite sister. She was so cool and pretty and talented. He just didn't quite know how to tell her. So he asked her to teach him to play guitar like she did. She had started him off with some simple songs, and learning how to tune and play chords. Luna said he was a fast learner. He didn't know about that. Having grown up around sisters who were all exceptional in their fields, he had become capable of learning quickly.

He read complicated books to Lisa, he helped Luan with her comedy and was actually pretty funny when he wanted to be. He helped Lola practice for her pageants, Lana with her tools and hunting for frogs and bugs, Leni with her clothes and he could speak text language with Lori. He could do poetry with Lucy and sports with Lynn. He was definitely already a Jack of all trades, even at 9 years old.

"Hey, Lil' bro! Ya wanna work sommore on guitar after you're done eating?" Luna asked, popping her head downstairs again. Lincoln nodded happily, finished as fast as he could and hurried up with Luna, sitting on her floor with her and strumming the guitar. Eventually, Luna stopped him and asked about Sam.

"What did Sam look like?" Luna asked. Lincoln smiled.

"She was really pretty. She has light blonde hair like Leni and blue eyes like Lori, but darker blue. She has long hair like Rapunzel and she's really good at dancing." Lincoln said, drawing a quick, but decent picture of Sam, with a long braid that went down to her knees, a tee shirt with a circle on it and some writing and a pair of jeans.

"Here." Lincoln said, handing Luna the picture.

"Wow… Jesus, Linc! This is really good, brah! I didn't know you were this good at drawing!"

"Yeah… I illustrate Lucy's poems and stories sometimes." He said, blushing modestly. "It's not a perfect likeness, but it'll do." Lincoln said. Luna nodded.

"Great… Let's get back… You've got the chords and everything down pat. You wanna start learning a harder song?" Luna asked. Lincoln nodded. Luna began showing him the chords for Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes. The two played late into the night before Luna realized what time it was and made Lincoln go to bed.

Sam sighed, walking into her house and going right up to her room. She had so much energy with Lincoln and Clyde. But now, it had all just drained away and felt like it was never there. "Hey, Sammy… Who were those people who brought you home?" Simon asked, hoping that he could have a conversation with Sam. She looked at him, a desperately sad expression on her face.

"Just some locals." She muttered, closing herself in her room, looking in the mirror. Could she really cut her own hair?

It seemed strange to do that. She had sharp enough scissors to just lob the whole thing off. She could cut her hair in a pixie cut if she wanted to. She had been thinking for a while about how long she wanted her hair to be… No. A pixie cut would be cute, but too short. She was so used to having long, heavy hair. Her hair went down past her knees by now. She had promised Simon that one day, her hair would drag down on the floor, past her feet and Simon could use it to climb up the house.

They were kids then, and that had been a good joke. He had called her 'his Rapunzel'. He had been 'her Flynn', and they spent the rest of the day walking around singing songs from Tangled and eventually branching out to other Disney movies. Sam smiled helplessly, remembering how happy they had been, how much fun they had. Simon offered to braid her hair, and Sam knew that she would probably have to do it over, but she couldn't deny him when he looked at her like that.

So she said yes. And he actually did a pretty good job, considering his hands were so small and he had so little practice doing it at the time. She began singing 'At Last I See the Light', tears filling her eyes. She had ruined her relationship with Simon, all because she had to get herself sexually assaulted and now she just couldn't get over it. A cold, heavy, painful knot began to form in her stomach, and she laid down for a while, falling asleep.

A few hours later, Amanda came up to wake Sam up for dinner. Sam groaned.

"You know, I'm not really that hungry." Sam muttered.

"You've lost a lot of weight, Sammy… You must have lost at least three pounds since that night… You're not eating right… You have dark circles under your eyes… I know you're trying to be strong, but please… Please, let us help you. Trust us." Amanda pleaded.

Sam sighed and turned over, turning her back to Amanda. The mother knew that the conversation was over. Sam wasn't going to eat that night either. She ate maybe twice a day if they were lucky, more often once, sometimes not at all. Amanda and Erik tried to get Sam to eat, to keep up her health. But it was a losing battle. Sam had always been strong willed, and in her traumatized state, it was being used to deny herself her basic needs, to shut herself off from her family.

Amanda was grateful to whoever this Lincoln kid was. She needed to go to Lincoln's house and thank him personally for taking the time to hang out with Sam. Even if it didn't make her happier in the long run, she could tell that Sam had a good time with him.

"Alright Sammy." Amanda said sadly.

"I love you." The blonde haired mother said, kissing Sam gently on the cheek and heading down to dinner to tell them that Sam wouldn't be joining them again.

Sam laid in bed, tears filling her eyes. She was starving… But she just couldn't face her family. She didn't know why. That look that she saw in their eyes every time they looked at her. Pity. Sadness. Fear. It made her sick. It disgusted her. She just wanted to scream at them and make them stop looking at her like that. To force them to stop feeling sorry for her.

She hated them… But she was terrified of them. She just wanted them to love her again, to not see a freak that wasn't even whole anymore much less the perfect daughter they wanted her to be. They must know. Simon must have told them that she was a filthy dyke. That she was a disgusting freak. Simon must hate her so much now for dumping him like she had. It wasn't her fault though… She just couldn't let him get hurt. She couldn't put him in danger just because she needed him.

"IT'S NOT MY FAULT!" She screamed, tears flooding her eye as she collapsed in tears. This was the first time she had cried in what felt like forever… No… She had just cried the other night… It wasn't enough. She wished it was easier to cry. She didn't exactly feel better after she cried, but she felt a little bit less heavy, less burdened after she cried.

She screamed and shrieked, caught between pain, terror and rage, punching her headboard, ignoring the fact that her knuckles were bruised and bleeding now, the skin splitting open and spraying blood with every punch. Pain meant nothing to her though. She just needed a distraction from her emotional agony. After a minute or two of insane screaming, Simon burst into her room, trying to pull her away from her bed.

"Sammy! Sammy! Stop!" Simon pleaded. Eventually, Sam calmed down, hugging Simon tightly, sobbing in his arms, begging him not to let her go. It was weird. Simon felt weird. He loved Sam, she was his Sammy. She was practically his mommy, but she had done so much more for him than his real mom ever did. But he still was having trouble sorting out how he felt. She seesawed between clinging to him like a lost child and refusing to even talk to him.

She switched between telling him how much she loved him and screaming hateful epithets at him. What was he supposed to think? She looked at him with a strange look.

"Simon… I-I need your help. I need you to do a favor for me." She said. Simon hesitated. Why should he do her a favor? She had treated him like shit for the past few weeks when she wasn't clinging desperately to him, and that was only when she needed something from him.

What did he owe her? But still.  
"What do you need, Sammy?" Simon asked gently. He couldn't just deny her. He still loved her. She was still his Sammy. She still meant the world to him, and he would still go to Hell and back just to see her smile. She sighed, looking away from him.

"I need you to help me cut my hair." She said. Simon gasped, a pained look crossing his face.

"But you have beautiful hair… Sammy, your hair has always been what you're most proud of… You take such great care of it. You're like Rapunzel with it… Why would you cut it?" He asked. Sam moaned miserably.

"I need to change myself… Physically. I want to look different from how I used to. I want to be someone new here… Reinvent myself." Sam said.

*Maybe if I look different, I'll be different. Maybe if I look different, I won't be such a freak anymore. Maybe I'll actually be straight and I can make Mom and Dad proud of me…* This was what she was thinking. Simon still seemed conflicted.

"Is this really what you want, Sammy? To cut off your beautiful hair?" Simon asked. Sam nodded, hugging him tightly, seeing that he had already agreed, even if he hadn't said it yet.

"How short do you want it?" Simon asked, taking out the sharpest, 'cuttiest' pair of scissors he had. That's what he called them, the 'cuttiest' pair of scissors he had.

They were extremely sharp, not as sharp as a razor, but sharper than typical kitchen scissors because they were specialized for art, for cutting flower stems and various other things for art. He was only allowed to use them with adult supervision. But Sammy was an adult. She could approve him using them. So he got them out of his room and turned on as many lights as possible.

He wasn't very experienced at cutting hair, but he was an artist, and Sammy was worth it, even if his feelings for her were confused. She sat down in front of her vanity mirror and he pulled her hair out of its braid, over the back of the chair, combing it out, being as gentle as possible, stroking her hair to calm her down a bit, and putting it into a ponytail, tying it perfectly.

"Tell me where to cut it, Sammy?" Simon asked. Sam showed him a spot about halfway between the bottom of her ears and her shoulders. He nodded and cut it, holding the back of the blade just above her neck and snipping. The hair fell away and she looked at it, frowning slightly.

"It's a little longer than I wanted it. Maybe you could cut it a bit shorter?" Sam asked.

"Sammy… I don't… I don't want to. Your hair is so beautiful… Why do you even want to cut it in the first place? Why do you want to cut it at all?"  
"I-I told you… I just want to change the way I look… It's just hair. Besides, it seems silly now that I ever cared so much about my hair. It's just little strands that grow out of my head. Simon sighed, his hand beginning to shake. He tied her hair back up and cut a little higher.

Unfortunately, this time, his shaking hands made him cut higher than he meant to. He cut just about at the bottom of her earlobes. Her hair was still beautiful, but short. It was so short. It looked weird. He ran his hands through her soft, silky hair, brushing out the stray strands. He had hardly done a professional job on her hair. It was uneven, it was obvious that it had been a hack job.

"Do you mind if I even out your hair, Sammy? At least give you a haircut that suits you?" Simon asked. Sam nodded. Simon snipped here and there, making sure he was being careful. He had cut Alric's hair a few times. Noriko's sisters had actually given him his start. They knew how artistic he was, and they usually cut Nori's hair for her, so they taught him a bit about cutting hair, and he studied videos of people cutting hair, since the first time he cut Alric's hair, it had turned into a disaster.

His first time cutting Noriko's hair was much better. Not great. Yuriko and Emiko had been much better at cutting hair. But she smiled and thanked him. Even though he knew he had done an objectively terrible job, Noriko never cared that much about her hair. It was just a pain to have it be too long, so she had her sisters… Or sometimes Simon… Cut it. So no, Simon wasn't a professional by any means. But he was an artist, and he was better than the average eight year old at cutting hair.

He finished off the do, and Sam put on her glasses, looking at her hair.

"Well… It's shorter than I expected it to be. But you did a really good job." Sam said, hugging Simon tightly. Suddenly, she looked nervous.

"Do you think I look okay?" She asked.

Simon rubbed his arm uncomfortably.

"I always think you look beautiful, Sammy… I've always thought you were the most beautiful person in the world… But… I loved your long hair. I thought it was really pretty. It made you look like a princess. And when you would wear those pretty dresses… You could have been right out of a Disney movie. If… If this short hair is really what you want though… Then yes. I like it." Simon said.

Sam smiled. There was a reason, she knew that she trusted Simon so completely. He had almost gotten killed protecting her, and her hair… But even still, he was willing to cut it all off for her just because she asked him to. He was really sweet.

"Simon… I know I haven't been the best sister lately… But you know I love you, right?" Sam asked. Simon looked away. There was a long pause.

"Of course… Would you at least come down and get something to eat? I hate seeing you starve yourself like this. You've gotten really skinny and you look really tired, like you can't sleep. I-I'm worried about you… But…" He was going to tell her how confused he was about how he felt about her… He couldn't do that to her though. Not right now.

"But I'm worried about you…" He said, acting like he had never even thought what he was about to say.

"I-I guess I could have some milk or something… To settle my tummy." Sam said. Simon thought it was cute how Sam still used words like 'tummy' sometimes, especially when she was feeling vulnerable. Most of her friends didn't use words like that anymore. But Sam still did on occasion.

She went downstairs with Simon and got a big glass of whole milk and gulped it down, looking like she felt a little bit better, even if not much.

"I-I think I'm just gonna go to bed." Sam said. Simon nodded and kissed Sam on the cheek.

"I love you, Sammy…" He said. Sam smiled.

"I love you too." She said, brushing her teeth and going to bed.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: A New School- Sam's First Day

"Hey, dudes! Y'all ready to get goin' to school yet?" Luna asked. As usual, morning in the Loud House was pretty slow. She brushed her hair out of her eyes. She had decided on a pixie cut, but she hadn't gotten it cut in a while and it was getting a bit shaggy, looking in the mirror. Her face had broken out again. She hated her oily skin. She used products on it with her limited money from babysitting. But she still had acne problems

She sighed and yelled up the stairs again.

"COME ON, DUDES! WE'RE GONNA BE FRICKIN' LATE!" Luna yelled. Lori slouched down, stretching as she had just finished drying her hair. She still took a while to wake up. Luna rolled her eyes.

"Come on, Lori! We have to get going!"

"Why do you literally care?" Lori asked. "You're usually the last person ready." That was normally true. But she really wanted to meet the girl that Lincoln had described. First of all, she had to return the girl's guitar. But second of all, she genuinely wanted to meet Sam. She seemed like a cool hang, and if she was as good at guitar as Lincoln described, she was definitely worth getting to know.

"And why do you literally have two guitars with you?"

"One of them is Sam's." Luna reiterated. Lori nodded.

"Why don't you just walk to school? It's literally not that far, and you look like you could use the exercise to calm yourself down a bit." Luna nodded, grabbing a piece of toast and running out the door, heading to school. Luna ran as fast as she could with a guitar and her backpack strapped to her back and the one clutched to her chest.

She got there in pretty good time, crossing paths with a short haired blonde girl with beautiful blue eyes, practically crashing into her.

"Oh! Sorry, brah! I don't think I've met you before… You have beautiful hair… I wish I could keep my hair that nice." Luna said, laughing nervously.

This girl was beautiful. It felt weird for Luna, staring at her. The girl seemed just as uncomfortable.

"Are you alright?" The blonde girl asked. Luna shook her head.

"Yeah!" Luna said, altogether too loudly. "I'm fine!"

"Okay…" The blonde girl said. She looked at her guitar, clutched to Luna's chest. Suddenly, the bell rang though, and the two girls separated, heading towards their first classes of the day.

Luna's first class was English. They were reading Oliver Twist in class. It wasn't Luna's favorite novel. She couldn't wait to start reading Shakespeare. Lori had told her that she started reading Shakespeare in 9th grade. Luna had borrowed Lori's copy of Romeo & Juliet. She hadn't had much luck reading it though.

"Ms. Loud… Could you read the next part of Oliver Twist for us?" Mr. Anderson asked politely. Luna nodded, and read the next section until Mr. Anderson stopped her.

"Thank you, Ms. Loud." Mr. Anderson said politely. Luna nodded.

"Now, what does everyone think about Dickens' portrayal of Jews in this work? Fagin was known as 'Fagin the Jew'. It wasn't exactly considered racist or even uncommon to portray Jews so stereotypically back then." The class discussed various scenes where Fagin was portrayed very stereotypically as a Jew.

His greed and cunning, but also his cowardice and unscrupulousness in 'business', gathering small boys around him as pickpockets. Can anyone think of other instances in the story?"  
"The fact that he was referred to simply as "the Jew" almost 250 times." One student said. Mr. Anderson nodded.

"Good… Anything else?"

"About a year before Dickens died, he removed a lot of the racist mentions of Fagin, but there was mention of a nasally voice and hunched posture." A girl said. Mr. Anderson nodded again.  
"Good. Well, that's our class for today. So for homework tonight, read the next chapter if you haven't already and be ready to discuss it tomorrow."

Finally, class ended and math was next.

-0-

Luna liked her math teacher. Or rather, He was young, a man named Mr. Ryan. He was pretty eccentric, and had some verbal tics that he didn't really try to hide. He was a really fun guy though, and he made math class fun for everyone. Even people who weren't good at math, people like Luna, enjoyed his teaching method, which was very energetic.

"Alright, everyone. Who can tell me what Pi is?" Mr. Ryan asked. A girl in the front raised her hand.

"Pi is 3.14, and it's used to determine the radius and circumference of circles." She said proudly. Mr. Scoville nodded.

"Pi…3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067." He wrote this out as he spoke the numbers, jotting it down quickly on the board. It was impressive to see him write all those numbers out like that.

Luna's mind was taken off of the new girl almost completely. The brown haired rocker was pretty sure that her math teacher was a little bit on the weird side. He had just recited while writing Pi out to the hundredth digit. And that wasn't out of the park weird. It was a little eccentric, but not completely out there. What was weird was that he didn't have a book open and he wasn't looking at any piece of paper. He had done it all from memory.

"Class, I don't expect any of you to know Pi out to the hundredth digit, or even the twentieth. That's not necessary and for most, it's not practical. However, this Friday, we'll be having a test and for extra credit, you'll get 1 point for the first five digits that you know and an additional 1 point for every three after that. If that brings your score past 100% then so be it." He said.

"I recommend though that you focus on learning the material before you focus on learning Pi out to some ridiculous digit."

"Excuse me, Mr. Ryan?" Luna asked. Mr. Ryan looked at her, smiling politely.

"Yes, Ms. Loud?"

"How did you learn Pi out to 100 digits like that?"

"Oh, well… It's a bit complicated, but the short of it is, I actually know it out to 300-ish digits. I just didn't see the point in wasting all your time writing it out that far. I have something called Ideasthesia, more commonly known as Synesthesia.

"It affects everyone slightly differently, but for me, numbers register as colors. Have you ever heard of the man who has Ideasthesia who knows over 20 languages? Well that's because the Ideasthesia causes him to see words as colors, so learning languages, even difficult or isolate languages is much easier for him. It's the same for me with mathematics." Mr. Ryan said.

"Does that answer your question, Ms. Loud?" He asked.

Luna nodded.

"Good… Now, let's continue." He said. Class went on and he continued to teach about circles and the use of Pi in determining their measurements. What Mr. Ryan had said to her struck a chord.

_God, am I turning into Luan? Jeez!_

But seriously, she could easily learn Pi by turning it into a chords. 0-E, 1-G, 2-C, 3-A, 4-D, and so on. She could write a song that turned Pi into music.

_Who was that girl?_ Luna wondered. She didn't think she had ever met her before. Of course, Luna hadn't met everyone in school, and although she was fairly well-liked in school, she still wasn't friends with everyone. But this girl had an accent that suggested she was from out of state. She couldn't quite put her finger on it though. She may have just been imagining it.

She was distracted all throughout class, so when Mr. Ryan called on Luna, she didn't answer.

"Ms. Loud…" Mr. Ryan called… Luna still didn't answer. Finally, Mr. Ryan walked over to Luna and tapped her on the shoulder. The brown haired girl gasped, shaking her head.

"S-sorry, dude… I just… I'm distracted t-today.

"Ms. Loud… First of all, don't call me dude." Mr. Ryan said, sounding amused by how informal she was being. He didn't really mind, but it wasn't really appropriate to be so informal with a student.

"S-sorry, sir." She said.

"That's okay. Second of all, pay attention please. This is gonna be on your test and you need to learn this.

"I'm sure you already have a clever way of learning Pi, but you can't substitute that for learning the material. Do you understand?" He asked. Luna nodded, blushing slightly. She had expected him to at least be a little annoyed at her. But he was even cooler than she thought he was.

Okay. Let's get back to work." Mr. Ryan said. "I strongly recommend you pay attention."

The rest of class went pretty smoothly. She was having trouble paying attention. Nice weather outside, flowers were starting to bloom in early Spring, she was curious about who the blonde girl had been. She had been planning on getting together with Georgie and Ruth on Saturday to look for more band members. Maybe Sam could be one of the members.

George had a crush on her. Everyone knew that. It was hard to hide. She didn't feel the same way, and he was a bit shy, so she didn't bring up the topic since she didn't want to embarrass him. So she was happy to wait until he was ready to tell her.

-0-

Class ended, and History was next. When she got into the classroom, she gasped. The blonde girl was sitting in the back of the classroom, rubbing her arm nervously, glancing around, and trying to look small and not be noticed. Ms. Karimi, a dark skinned woman who dressed very conservatively.

"Good morning, class." She said softly. She had a strong accent, but the students were all able to understand her. Some of them had trouble at first, but they got used to it.

"We have a new student in our class. Miss Sharp, please come to the front and introduce yourself?" Ms. Karimi said politely. Sam trembled. It was the third time that day she had done this. But that didn't make it any easier to do. She still quailed under everyone's gazes.

"There is no need to be nervous, Miss Sharp. Please just tell us a little bit about yourself."

"Um… I-I'm S-Sam Sharp. I came here from C-Columbus, Ohio. It's n-nice to meet you… all… Of you…" She stammered. Luna gasped.

_She's Sam Sharp?_ Luna thought. She should have known, Luna thought. She had the right color hair, the right color eyes. She was the right age and since Luna didn't even recognize her, it seemed obvious now that she must have been a new student.

Luna sighed. Sam was really pretty. Her choice of clothes was plain though, lacking in anything that would draw attention. She wore plain blue jeans and a white long sleeved tee shirt. Her clothes weren't ugly or dirty or even terribly worn. The white shirt and jeans looked comfortable, like an outfit that she didn't need to put much thought into.

Her hair was cut short, and it was obvious that she didn't need to put much work into it and that in fact she hadn't. It seemed slightly disheveled and she had a strange sadness in her eyes that Luna couldn't quite quantify, but was obvious when she paid attention. She had dark circles under her eyes like she hadn't slept well in a few nights.

Sam really didn't want to be there. She didn't even want to leave her room that morning. She rubbed her arm nervously. Luna was surprised she didn't rub her skin off with how fast she was rubbing. It was common for middle schoolers to feel uncomfortable. But Sam looked terrified to be there. Luna felt really bad for Sam, being forced to stand up in front of the class and talk like that.

"Thank you, Miss Sharp. Sit wherever you are able and turn to page 394 of your textbook." Sam giggled, along with a number of other students in the class.

"Sorry… Did I say something funny?" Ms. Karim asked.

"Turn to page three hundred and ninety-four…" A student said in Severus Snape's voice. The class laughed again. Ms. Karim laughed. James had always had been good at mimicking voices.

"Thank you, Mr. Ross. Sam. We're working on the Civil War. If you aren't entirely caught up, don't worry. I have after school study sessions that you're more than welcome to attend." Ms. Karim said.

Sam sat down about two rows over from Luna in the back, where she had been sitting before. Luna wrote down a note.

_Sam… You met my brother over the weekend and forgot your guitar in my mom's car. I brought it back for you._

_Cheers,_

_Luna Loud_

"Hey, Dani… Pass this over to Jayce. Ask him to give it to Sam." Luna whispered to the girl next to her, taping the note to the guitar case. Dani nodded and passed it to Jayce with the same instruction. Jayce passed it surreptitiously to Sam, pointing to the note, saying it was from Luna. Sam picked up the note and read it, looking over at the girl in the purple outfit.

"Thank you." Sam mouthed shyly. Luna gave her a thumbs up. The rest of class went pretty much as expected, with Ms. Karimi going over the Civil War and talking about the causes and the various important figures during the war. Class went pretty normally after that. As the end came up, Ms. Karimi assigned the class an essay that was due in two weeks. They had to write an essay about the aftermath of the Civil War and the results, both good and bad that came from it.

-0-

Next period was Earth Science with Mr. Blackstone. The first day, he said that he knew there was an 'iron'-y to his name, and that he knew they were going to 'rock' his mind with their jokes at his expense. But that if they were going to make fun of his name they better come up with one he hadn't heard and that was actually clever, or they would get a one way trip to the AP.

One person tried. But it was neither new nor clever. So he ended up going to the Assistant Principal. After that, nobody made fun of his name. Mr. Blackstone was young and energetic. He had only just started teaching that year, and Luna's female friends said he was really handsome… Though Luna just didn't see it. Class went into how earth moved, and the natural course of geographic movement over time. He showed them a video of how the continents moved around the planet throughout history.

That the most recent and still current supercontinents are called Afroeurasia, and America, but that before that, between about 510-180 million years ago there was a supercontinent called Gondwana, and one of the largest supercontinents was Pangea, which existed between about 300 million years ago and began to break up around 175 million years ago.

The class was devoted to discussing the reasons for tectonic plates and how and why they shifted, and the effects of those shifts. There were entire fields of research devoted to volcanoes, tidal waves, and earthquakes, and their effects on the planet, and how even though they could be monumentally destructive… He cited the Toba Extinction Theory.

That about 75,000 years ago, the Toba Supervolcano erupted and spewed enough ash into the atmosphere that it caused a volcanic winter that lasted around 6-10 years and that it was theorized that it caused a genetic bottleneck. Basically, it wiped out about 90% of intelligent hominids, and that before that, it was believed that there was more than one species of intelligent hominid. However, the bottleneck caused only Homo Sapiens to survive to modern day.

However, earth's tectonics and volcanoes were vitally important, because the only way that they could stop was if earth's core cooled and then earth would effectively die, because the planet would no longer have a magnetic field, protecting it from solar radiation, asteroids would hit the planet as well as the sun becoming devastating to it.

There was a certain irony, he mused, that although plate tectonics caused devastating catastrophes to happen, from tidal waves, to earthquakes, to volcanoes, earth would be far worse off without them. That was something Luna liked about him. He was passionate about his field of study, and made it fun for the students, bringing up information that wasn't necessarily vital to their exams, but was interesting to learn and kept the students paying attention.

-0-

Class ended and Luna went to lunch. As she was going to the lunchroom, she heard a guitar playing outside though. She followed the sound and saw Sam playing and singing a song that Luna had always loved. She was playing Country Roads. Luna wasn't exactly a huge Country fan. But John Denver had a captivating presence that he brought to his music.

"Country Roads, take me home

"To the place… I belong

"West Virginia, Mountain Mama

"Take me home, down Country Roads…" Luna began to sing along with Sam.

She sat down next to the blonde haired girl and they sang together for a while. Luna had been a bit hungry, but overall, she was having more fun doing this. Finally, they stopped and Sam smiled anxiously at Luna.

"Hey… So, you're the girl that my little brother met in town on Saturday, huh?" Luna asked. Sam nodded uncertainly. Was that a good thing or a bad thing?

"Y-yeah… He and his friend were really fun t-to hang out with. They're good at dancing and they like singing along with me when I play my guitar… They helped me find my way around the town and then get back home… Your parents really raised quite a gentleman." Sam said. Luna smiled.  
"Yeah… They did. Lincoln's great. He's smart too. He's not as good as me at singing, or as Luan at comedy, or as Lucy at writing.

"He's not as good as any of us at what we're best at. But he's good enough that he can do what we do and hold his own. He can listen to music and know what to listen for. He can write poems and sing songs, and tell jokes and help Leni with her fashion stuff and play soccer with Lynn. What he's really great at though is drawing and comics and video games, basically anything that's traditionally considered nerdy, he's good at.

"He plays a game called Magic the Gathering and another one called Dungeons and Dragons. I don't get any of what he's talking about with that. But he's pretty good at them, and he's only getting better as he gets older. Do you have any siblings?" Luna asked. Sam nodded.

"I have one brother… Simon. He's really sweet.

"I practically raised him, so we were really close growing up." Sam said. Luna smiled.

"Sounds like you and he really love each other." Sam nodded.

"We do. He's a little upset that we had to move away. He had a really great group of friends. They all said they're gonna come visit… I hope they do. I hope they don't just forget about him." Sam said.

"I'm sure they won't. I'm betting they'll come visit as often as they can." Luna said. They kept talking for a while. The subject varied from Sam's life in the city to Luna's experience growing up with so many siblings. The bell eventually rang though, and they had to split up for the rest of the day.

"Hey, Sam… Ya wanna join me and my friends' club? We meet after school and sometimes on weekends. We could use another guitarist in the band." Luna said.

Sam seemed shocked.

"You… You want _me_ in your band?" She asked, genuinely surprised that anyone would want her. Luna laughed.

"Yeah! You seem like a really good guitarist, and I play lead guitar, Georgie plays Bass, Ruth plays Keyboard.

"We need a second guitar and a drummer. We'll fill you in on the deets this evening! Come check us out in Room 318!" Luna said. Sam was still surprised, so she was shocked when the second bell rang and she realized she was late.  
"Crap! Crap! Crap!" Sam shouted, packing up her guitar and running to her next class.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four: Simon's First Day

"Simon… Sweetie…" Amanda said. This was the third time she had come up to wake Simon up, and the third time he had agreed to get up and gone right back to sleep. She was a little worried about him. He usually enjoyed school. He wasn't exactly ecstatic about school. But he was very social, so he always liked going to be with people. Amanda had thought he'd be excited to make new friends.

To the contrary though, he seemed angry.

"I'm not going!" Simon growled irritably. Amanda went into Simon's room.

"Simon… You have to go to school. You're eight. I'm… I'm sure you're nervous. I was nervous the first time I moved to a new school. My family moved from New York City to Columbus. God, I was nervous. There's nothing wrong with being nervous." Amanda said gently.

"But you need to go to school. Breakfast is ready downstairs. Your dad and I have our first day at our new jobs. You and Sammy have your first days at your new schools. Come on, Simon. I know you can do this." Amanda said. Simon sighed, getting out of bed and heading to the bathroom to brush his teeth and take a shower. He then headed downstairs and ate a quick breakfast, glancing at Sam on occasion.

"Sammy?" Simon asked nervously. Sam looked up.  
"Yes?" She replied. Simon sighed.

"N-never mind…" Sam went back to her breakfast.

"Are you nervous about school today?" He asked. Sam seemed to think for a minute.

"It can't be any worse than my old school." She muttered apathetically.

"Sammy… I know we go to different schools, but can we walk together for a while?" Simon asked. Sam smiled weakly.

"Yeah… Of course." Sam said, finishing her breakfast.

"Sammy… I want you to eat more. You've lost a lot of weight and it's not healthy." Amanda said.

Sam sighed.

"I'm not really hungry, Mom." The blonde girl said. Amanda sat down with her daughter.

"Sammy… Would you just humor me and eat a bit more?" Amanda asked, putting two more sausages and some more eggs on her plate. Sam growled furiously and threw the plate on the ground, food and all, ignoring the shocked look on Amanda's face as it smashed on the ground.

Sam stormed out of the house.

"I SAID I WASN'T FUCKING HUNGRY!" she screamed. Simon hurried to get his shoes on and ran out after Sam. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and fell into stride next to her.

"Sammy… Why won't you eat?" Simon asked.

"I told mom what I'm going to tell you. I'm not hungry." Sam said.

"Yes you are! Your tummy is getting skinnier! You've always been thin, but you're losing weight! Sammy… Please! I'm worried about you! Please! Just come to a café with me or something! I'll pay for the food!" Simon begged. Sam looked down at Simon, hugging him tightly.

"Okay. We have a little free time left before I have to be at school." She said, going to a small café and getting some eggs, a blueberry muffin, and coffee.

Simon got some orange juice and a muffin. Not much was said between them. There was still a strange awkwardness between them.

"Sammy… Do you still love me?" Simon asked, tears stinging the corners of his eyes. Sam looked nervously at Simon.

"Of course I do, Simon… I'm just… Simon, I'm just… It's not your fault… I-I can't talk about it." Sam said. Simon sighed. That didn't help him understand what was going on.

"Sammy… Please… Just talk to me. Please!" Simon pleaded. Sam sighed.

"I can't. You're… You're too young." Sam said. Simon moaned miserably. Their mother had said the same thing to him.

"Nobody trusts me." He whimpered. Sam felt bad too. She wanted to confide in Simon. She hated keeping all this inside. It hurt. She could barely stand it. But she couldn't burden Simon with her problems. She had gotten up at 5 that morning and gone running. She was actually a better runner than she had expected herself to be. She came back home and did situps and pushups and tried to figure out how she could get in better shape.

Fortunately, she saw a rock climbing wall in the park. She figured that she could get in shape and still have fun. She finished her breakfast and put some money down, ignoring Simon's protests, heading to school and telling Simon to go as well.

-0-

Simon sighed, going into the school. There were so many people, especially for such a small town, and already he felt overwhelmed. It was weird. He used to be so comfortable in big crowds. But now, he just wanted to be alone or maybe just with Sammy. Suddenly, he was crashed into from behind.

"Oh! Jeez, I'm sorry!" The boy said, tumbling and looking sheepishly at him.

He had very well kept white hair with a large cowlick sticking up in the back of his head. Frankly, Simon thought he would look better if he just left his hair a bit messier. But he wasn't going to say anything.

"No problem." Simon said shyly, hurrying to stand up and rush off, leaving the white haired boy a little confused. Simon went into his first class and sat down, waiting for class to start.

Soon, the teacher walked into the room. He was a tall man with brown hair, but a high forehead, likely from thinning hair. He wasn't exactly old. But he was easily over 35. He had dark brown eyes that almost looked black and a rounded face that showed that he might be a little overweight. He seemed nice though.

"Good morning, class. My name is Mr. Martin. I say that because we have a new student today. Young man, please introduce yourself?" Mr. Martin said politely.

Simon nodded nervously and walked up to the front of the room, quailing slightly under everyone's gaze. None of these kids were his friends. He wanted Alric, Jimmy, Eddie, Nori and Amelia. He didn't want new friends. He just wanted the friends he'd had since kindergarten. He needed to hide his nervousness though. He couldn't get off on the wrong foot. He couldn't let them know that he was scared. That would just get him bullied. He smiled cheerfully.

"I'm Simon Sharp… My family came here from Columbus, Ohio." Simon said.

"Does anyone have questions for Simon?" The teacher asked. A girl raised her hand.

"You talk funny. Why?" She asked. The teacher stepped in.  
"Does anyone have any _appropriate_ questions for Simon?" The teacher asked. Another girl raised her hand.

"What are your hobbies?" She asked.

"Oh… I like music. I play airsoft and classic horror movies and art." Simon said. The teacher stopped him.  
"Alright. You can ask him other things later. Let's get started." He said.

"Simon, my name is Mr. Martin. Today, we're learning about the Civil War.

"Please find a seat and we'll get started." Mr. Martin said politely. Simon found a seat, and opened his book to Chapter Eight and they began learning about the causes of the Civil War. How slavery was only the most obvious cause, but that the economic issues surrounding slavery were a much bigger issue than the slavery itself. Another issue was state rights vs. the right of the federal government to regulate those rights.

"Naturally, the South believed that because the southern economy was so different from the northern economy, that each state should have the right to regulate how their economy works. From a modern perspective, it seems like awfully specious… Er, flimsy logic. But from the southern perspective at the time, slavery was a necessity.

This discussion went on for the rest of the class session, with Mr. Martin calling on students to give input into the issues being talked about. At the end, Simon went on to second period, which was science. He sat down and was introduced briefly to the class.

"Now, Simon, my name is Ms. Moon." The woman said politely. She was Asian and had a very pretty smile. She was probably in her early 40s and had straight black hair and pale brown eyes.

"Please, sit down, Simon. Today, we're working on division." Ms. Moon said. Simon nodded and quickly moved through his division, doing the work out on the page. He was hardly a genius in math. History, English and art were his strongest subjects, with a second in gym and music. But math wasn't exactly a weak subject for him. He looked up at the board.

"Mr. Sharp. Would you please come up to the board and do this problem for the class?" Ms. Moon asked. Simon nodded and went up, doing the math and then writing down the answer.

"Very good. Thank you, Simon." She said. Simon went back to his seat. The rest of class was pretty dull. Next was English.

He had a tall… A very tall woman. She must have been almost 6'5". She looked like she was barely 30, if even 30, and she had long brown hair that she kept in a braid that went down past her waist. Simon stared wistfully at her. Sammy had loved her hair so much. Why did she want to cut it all off? Why would Sammy ask him to cut her hair?

"Hello, Mr. Sharp. My name is Ms. Mendis. It's a pleasure to meet you." She said with a cheerful, kind smile. He stared up at her for a moment, causing her to laugh.

"I'm 6'6". No, I've never been on the rack. My father was even taller than me. He was almost 7 feet tall. It's very nice to meet you. Why don't you tell the class a bit about yourself?"

"Um… Hi, I'm Simon… I'm from Columbus, Ohio. I'm into airsoft, art and music. And for the record, I'm not quite sure what 'the rack' is." Simon said, laughing sheepishly at his last statement.

"Thank you, Simon. You can get to know your new classmate better at recess." She said.

"Now, who can tell me what a synonym, antonym and homonym is? Simon."

"Synonyms are words that have the same meaning, like tall and long. Antonyms are words that have opposite meanings, like tall and short. And homonyms are words that sound the same and are spelled the same but have different meanings, like bark and bark." The blonde Sharp said. Ms. Mendis was visibly impressed.

"Very good, Mr. Sharp. Is everyone copying this down?" She asked. A bunch of kids hurriedly pulled out pens and scribbled what Simon had said down. A few others looked impressed as well, while some seemed annoyed by Simon. The place for Homonyms, Antonyms and Synonyms in the language took up the rest of the class.

After that, Simon went to gym class. He was at least reasonably confident that he would do well in gym.

"Hey, Sharp! My name is Coach Pakowski!" Pakowski said sternly. He had a rough voice, and he seemed a bit harsh. Simon took a deep breath.  
"Alright… Yeah… You can do this, Simon. Hi Coach Pakowski. I'm Simon." He said, reaching out to shake the teacher's hand.

"Yeah. Fall in with the rest of the class. You can get to know everyone while you're playing dodgeball with them." Pakowski said. Simon nodded, hurrying over to the rest of the class as they were separating into teams. He didn't say much, but a girl noticed him.

"Hey!" She said, calling him over. He went over and tried to smile.

"You must be new." She said cheerfully, stretching out her hand to shake his. Simon shook her hand uncertainly.

"What's yer name?" She asked.

"I'm… I'm Simon." He said.

"Where do y'all come from, Simon?" She asked. She had brown hair and freckles, and spoke in a southern accent.

"I'm from Columbus, Ohio." Simon said. She giggled.

"Great to meetcha!" She said.

"I'm Hattie! I have a cousin in this school named Liam and one who's like 1 or 2 named Lacie!" Hattie said. Simon smiled. She sure was friendly.

"So… Hattie… Where do you hail from?" He asked, referring to her accent.

"Alabama, 'riginally! Ahaha! Don't worry! That joke about us all marryin' our cousins is total hogwash!" She laughed. Simon chuckled nervously. He'd never heard that rumor before.

"So… What's yer family like?" Hattie asked.

"Oh, I have a mom, who's a nurse and a dad who's a construction foreman. My sister is in 8th grade. They're pretty cool. We're adjusting I guess." Simon said. He wasn't sure Sam was adjusting very well.

"Alright everyone! Split into teams and get pelting!" Pakowski said. Hattie was the captain of one team and a boy named Stephen was the captain of the other team. Hattie chose Simon first. She wasn't sure how good he was at Dodgeball, but she picked him because she wanted to get to know him better. After they were done choosing teams, they went to opposite ends of the gym and ran to the center, grabbing the balls and separating again.

Simon proved to be a very able Dodgeball player, throwing hard and dodging with agility. Hattie could admire his athleticism. At the end of the period, he got changed back into his regular clothes, sighing and heading to his next class. He called Sam first. The phone rang four times. Just when he thought she wasn't going to answer, and he began preparing a message, Sam picked up.

"Hello?" She asked, sounding surprisingly upbeat. She sounded a bit nervous, but upbeat overall.

"Hey, Sammy. I wanted t-to see how your… Your day was going." Simon asked.

"That's really sweet." Sam said lovingly.

"It's actually going pretty good. I met Luna. She's really cool and pretty… I-I mean…" A strange cry came out of Simon's mouth. He didn't understand it.

Was he angry at her? No. It wasn't quite anger. It wasn't even resentment. She'd heard that in his voice and she didn't want to acknowledge it. But it was there, the tiniest flicker of sharpness in his tone. This was different, and as much as she knew somewhere in her mind she knew what it was, she couldn't admit it. She couldn't let herself understand it…

Simon didn't understand what he was feeling either. It was strange. It was something he'd never felt quite like this before. It was similar yet different. It made his tummy hurt. It made him want to hug Sam and scream at and berate her at the same time. How dare she be happy when he was so miserable? How dare she find something to enjoy when she had destroyed her whole family's lives? No. It wasn't her fault. It was his fault. He had failed Sam.

But he just wanted what she felt right now. He wanted to be able to feel the same way. To be able to smile at her and tell her he loved her and mean it without any doubt in his mind like he used to be able to. Was he jealous of her? No. Simon assured himself that he couldn't be jealous. After what he realized must have been a long time, he spoke. 

"Aww…" Simon said happily. There was something else that was a little bit off though. Sam couldn't put her finger on it. She'd always been exceptionally perceptive, especially of changes in Simon's mood. But this… She couldn't place it.

"You have a crush on Luna." He said.  
"I do not! She's just cool, and she invited me to her band's next meeting. She heard me playing my guitar and we sang a song together. It was fun. And I'm actually excited to meet Luna's friends. I'm worried that they'll know when they meet me, and that they'll hate me for it." Sam said.

"You mean that you like…"  
"Shhh! Don't say it out loud!" Sam snapped. Simon gasped.

"Sorry. I just wanted t-to hear your voice. I-I'm happy you like Luna. But be careful. Last time…" Simon said lovingly. He couldn't finish that sentence. He knew now that he resented her, but he still adored her. She was still like his sister, father and mother all rolled into one.

He would never let her get hurt again. He would murder Luna with his bare hands if he had to. But he would never let anyone hurt her again. The bell rang and he hurried to his next class. He checked his schedule. Lunch. He sighed in relief. He was hungry. He grabbed his lunch from his locker and sat down in the cafeteria, sighing again, feeling tired now. He pulled out his lunch. It looked good. Peanut butter and jelly, grapes, cheese and a bottle of water and a candy bar.

He bought a carton of milk and began eating, enjoying lunch. Soon, three people sat down at his table. One of them was a girl. She was really pretty, if Simon did say so himself. She had chocolate brown skin and beautiful silky hair.

"Hi! My name is Gabby. Nice to meet you. You're new, aren't you?" She asked with a bright smile. Simon nodded.

"This is Sebastian." Gabby said. Sebastian had black hair slicked down but with a cowlick in the back and tan skin.

"And this is Sascha." Gabby said cheerfully. He had pale skin and freckles with brown eyes and sandy blonde hair.

"Nice… Nice to meet you." Simon said uncertainly.

"Nice to meet you too." Gabby said brightly.

"You've got quite a spread there. What's your name?" Sebastian asked.  
"Oh… I'm Simon." He said, shaking her hand uncertainly.

"No need to be afraid. You were in my gym class and my history class." Gabby said.

"You seemed really cool, so I wanted to meet you." She said. "Do you mind if we eat lunch with you?" She asked. Simon nodded numbly, biting into his sandwich, finishing it off quickly and moving onto his grapes and cheese. He then moved onto his candy bar and finished up with his water and milk.

They talked to each other for the rest of the period and then went out to recess. Simon sighed, trying to stay out of the way. He pulled out his notebook and began drawing pictures of his old friends in superhero costumes, each page having a description of their powers. He heard a scream and crying though, and looked up in annoyance.

There were four kids pushing around another kid. Sammy… The kid was Sammy… No. The kid was clearly a boy, and didn't look remotely like Sam. But their situations were similar. He was being held down now and his shirt was being hiked up. They were touching his chest and back and the boy looked like he was having a panic attack. Simon grabbed a brick and attached it to a broken broom handle and walked over to the group, smashing one of them in the back, sending him to the ground.

He then turned around and smashed the other one holding the kid down in the chest. He then held the makeshift hammer over his head to attack the leader, who held his hands up in surrender and stood to his full height.

"Hey. That was pretty impressive. These two clods aren't terribly bright, but you must've been pretty quiet to sneak up on them all the same. My name is Oswald. But please, call me Oz." The black haired boy with sharp, cold blue eyes said, staring at Simon with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"What can I call you?" He asked politely, seeming to have gauged the situation and seen that he couldn't win in a physical confrontation.

"Get out of my way and leave this kid alone." Simon commanded. Oz nodded.

"We were just joking around with him. Black, Avery, Foster. Get up and let's go. We'll take you to the infirmary." Oz said. He helped the two up and took them to the nurse. Simon was pretty sure one of the kids asked what an infirmary was.

"It's the nurse's office." Oz said with an air of derision for the boy's lack of intelligence. He then followed the three boys, the two who had been hit looking dazed and still confused as to how a kid as relatively small and thin as Simon could have not only gotten the drop on them but hurt them like that. Oz didn't seem confused at all. Simon was smart. He could tell just by looking at him. Simon knelt down and alerted the boy, who was curled up in a fetal position, trying to protect himself.

"Hey… Kid… My name's Simon. I'm not going to hurt you." The blonde Sharp said gently. The boy looked up.

"I'm Gil. Gil Isaksen. It's… It's nice to meet you…" Gil said shyly.

"It was nice of you to help me. But you shouldn't have attacked them. They're the biggest bullies in school. They're monsters!" Simon scoffed at this.

"Please! Those guys are nothing! I've met real monsters and these guys couldn't even touch those guys." Simon said. Gil seemed to marvel at how confident Simon was.

"You sound funny. Where do you come from?" Gil asked.

"Um… Ohio?" Simon shrugged. He never thought he sounded strange.

"Oh, hi-yo to you too." Gil said cheerfully.

"No. Um… Ohio is where I'm from. It's the state below Michigan, which is where we are now." Simon said. Gil nodded, seeming like he didn't fully get it, but was agreeing anyway.

The two boys talked together for a while before the bell rang and they had to go back to class. Simon gave Gil his phone number and they parted, Simon going to science. The teacher was a man with greying dark brown hair and glasses. He wore a plaid shirt and welcomed Simon, telling him where to sit.

"Alright, kids… We have a new student today. Simon Sharp moved here from Ohio and he'll be with us from now on. Please make him feel welcome.

"My name is Mr. Eckhart. I say that for Simon's benefit. Today, we're working on Evolution. Does anyone remember what we evolved from?" Simon raised his hand.

"Yes, Simon?"  
"Well… They haven't found our actual ancestor, but we evolved side by side with Primates. We're most closely related to Chimpanzees." Simon said.

"Wow… I'm impressed, Simon. That's right. Though I would have accepted the answer that we evolved from primates." Eckhart said.

"That's technically right. We're… More like siblings and cousins to primates than we are children. But that's a bit more complicated than the lesson that I'm supposed to teach today." Eckhart said. He went on to discuss a simplified explanation of evolution.

When class ended, he said that an essay was due about last week's subject. The students handed in their essays and Eckhart called Simon up as the other kids were leaving. He explained that the only homework he set was studying for tests and a two page essay once a week on the week's subject to make sure the students were retaining the lessons.

He said he expected Simon to have an essay the coming Monday as well. Simon nodded and headed to his next class, art. It was his last class of the day, and he was glad to almost be done. He went to the classroom and sat down. Like most art classrooms, it didn't have a traditional layout, desks in rows. There were easels and paints, and there were spatters of paint everywhere. Simon sighed. He felt much more comfortable here.

He chose a seat and relaxed while the rest of the students filed in and took seats. Finally, the art teacher came in. She was a short, slender woman with chocolate colored skin and hazel eyes. She had probably long black hair that was kept back in a bun and wore a sweater and a long skirt that went down to her ankles.

"Hello, class." She said in a soft, gentle tone. Simon immediately felt at ease with her. She had a calming smile.

"My name is Ms. Sloane, and we have a new student today. I won't embarrass him by making him come up and introduce himself. But please make him feel welcome. Today we're continuing the paintings we started on Thursday.

"If anyone has finished, that's fine. You can start a new painting if you're ready." She said. Simon took out a small pack of pencils and began sketching the outline of what he was going to paint on the canvas, his face scrunching in concentration. It was going to be Sam. Back when she was happy, with her long hair that trailed down to the floor when she sat down and restrained in a braid, smiling happily as she played her violin.

He probably wasn't the best artist around, but he liked to congratulate himself that he was pretty good. He'd been doing art as an outlet for his emotions since before he could really walk any significant distances. Due to his breathing problems as a young child, he couldn't even walk up stairs until he was around 5. And even then, he still got winded easily. It wasn't really until after he met Alric and started going out to the park and things like that with him that he began to become more physically able.

In reality the two things weren't related. They were just coincidental. They were correlated in the fact that it was around the same time he became friends with Alric. But there was no causation in the sense that Alric had nothing to do with it. But Simon didn't know that, and he still was grateful to Alric for helping him become able to walk without becoming exhausted.

Maybe a picture of Alric would be better… No. He could do that next. Sammy was who he wanted to draw and then paint. He drew all the lines by the end of the class, and had put letters on each part to signify what color they would be. Ms. Sloane came over and looked at what he'd gotten done.

"Mm… You're quite an artist, Simon." She said.

"Who are you drawing?" She asked.

"M-my sister… Sam." He said quietly, blushing slightly.

"I can tell how much you love her… Just from the outline." Ms. Sloane said. Simon nodded shyly and packed up his supplies as the final bell rang.

He went to his locker and packed everything into his backpack and started walking home. He got in the front door and saw that Sam wasn't home yet. She usually got home before him. Maybe middle school ended later than elementary school in Royal Woods. He was a little concerned though. They went to school at the same time. By all rights, they should both be coming home around the same time. After a little while, he remembered Sam telling him that she was staying after school.

He sighed, that same feeling of resentment and jealousy filling him again. He took a deep breath, ignoring the tears that were filling his eyes and started on his homework.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: A New Crew- Sam's New Friends

Sam breathed in deeply, breathing out and knocking on the club door. On the other side, Luna, Ruth and George were sitting there, working on a new song. Various instruments were scattered around the room. And Luna. She was there.

"Hey, Sammy!" Luna said cheerfully. Sam smiled back. Luna had been surprised when she first met Sam.

"Come on in! Sit down. Show Georgie and Ruth how good you are at playing guitar!" Luna said. Sam sat down and began plucking the guitar strings with her fingertips, playing Classical Gas for them.

As she played, she plucked the strings with her fingers. She had learned to play the 12 string guitar as well. She was an impressive guitarist and a much better than average violinist. Of course, having a 1,500 dollar violin didn't exactly hurt in the sound department. Sam remembered Mr. Scovario teaching her to play Classical Gas on the guitar. They were better times for her.

She wished she could just forget Columbus… In some ways, she did. In other ways, she had great friends back there, and Mr. Scovario was one of the best teachers and tutors she'd ever had. He was multitalented. He played guitar, violin, mandolin, banjo, ukulele and surprisingly, sitar. He was an incredible musician who in his younger years played for the philharmonic and in his later years worked teaching young musicians.

Now, Sam put all the emotion she could into this piece, not letting herself play a lackluster performance. Luna, George and Ruth were stunned by how good she was as she tuned the world out. She had played Classical Gas for Simon once and he had been blown away. At the end, the crew clapped.

"Wow, Sam! That's amazing!" Luna said. Sam gasped.

"That's amazing! Where did you learn to play guitar like that?" Luna asked. Sam blushed happily. She could tell that these people were really cool.

They were the definition of the 'in crowd'. They had a niche that they clearly followed. Rock music. But it was likely that they were all obscenely popular.

"Well… I-I got guitar lessons as a kid and I just… I don't go to professional lessons anymore. But I play most nights." Sam said. Luna nodded.

"Cool, dude. Do you play any other instruments?" Ruth asked.

"Well… Violin, viola, bass, and well, guitar obviously. What about you guys?" Sam asked. Luna smiled. Sam was multi-talented.

"Well, I started playing guitar when I was eight. Before that, I played violin. So guitar and violin. I picked up some ukulele, bass, and some keyboard and drums, some banjo. I-I guess a lot of the same instruments as you." Luna blushed, not wanting to seem like she was copying Sam.

"Wow… What about you, George?"

"Well… I mostly play backup guitar or bass in the band. But I can play drums if I need to. We've kinda been looking for new members to take permanent positions. But for now, we all fill in whatever the band needs." George said.

"George is a bit more specialized. You should hear him rock that bass though. He's crazy good at it." Luna said, causing George to blush, flattered by Luna's compliment.

"And you, Ruth?" Sam asked.

"Oh, keyboard, accordion, guitar, Theremin, and drums." Ruth said.  
"Wow. You guys are so multitalented. I dunno if I could fit in." Sam said shyly. Luna laughed.

"Ahahaha! That's complete hogwash! You just played Classical Gas on a 12 string guitar with your fingers!" Luna said.

"You're plenty good enough, girl!" Ruth said.

"Violin, Viola, Guitar, 12 String Guitar, Bass. You're def good enough, and if you want to learn more instruments, you can learn 'em here." George said.

"Were there any instruments that you're especially interested in?" Luna asked.

Sam smiled shyly.

"I kind of want to learn to play the banjo and the ukulele." Sam said. Luna smiled.

"I'd love to learn alongside you." Luna said.

"I've already gotten the chords down with Uke and Banjo. But I need to work on songs and perfecting my technique." Luna said.

"Wait, Lunes! You really got all the chords down with the Ukulele _and _Banjo?" Ruth asked.

"You only started working on it less than a month ago, dude!" George said. Luna shrugged. The two members looked at each other. Ruth and George both knew that Luna was a prodigy when it came to music. None of them thought that she could pick up two more instruments this quickly though.

"How long've you been playing guitar, Sam?" George asked.

"Well… Maybe since I was nine."  
"Only four years?" George asked. They clearly had another prodigy in the club.

"How are you at singing?" Luna asked. The three started playing a well-known song, and Sam sang Toto's Africa, showing that she was an incredible singer.

"Wow! Sammy. That was incredible, dude!" Luna exclaimed. Sam blushed happily.

"Really? Thanks." She said.

"I was in chorus in my previous school, and I sang lullabies to Simon sometimes when he couldn't sleep. I love singing, so I sing as often as I can. I've written some songs of my own, even if they're not that great." Sam muttered.

This group was amazing. They had accepted her so quickly. They didn't suspect anything yet. She couldn't let them know. Luke, Estelle and Bridget had told her to be herself. But she knew that she couldn't be. She knew that as much as she wished she could be, she couldn't. She hoped that one day, Luna and George and Ruth would say that they knew she was a lesbian and that they were okay with it. That there was nothing wrong with her.

She didn't expect that to happen though. She smiled for now though and lost herself in the conversation, laughing along with the group. Half the time she didn't know what she was laughing about, but they were so cool that they pulled her into their laughter. It was contagious. Finally, Luna handed Sam some sheet music.

"See if you can play this." Luna said. Sam nodded and practiced a few bars, looking down at the sheet music occasionally as she played through it. At the end, the rest of the group clapped. She had done very well. Luna high fived Sam.

"Awesome, brah! You really play a mean guitar." Luna said. Sam smiled. Ruth was pretty quiet when they weren't talking to her.

Sometimes, she was on her cell phone, but mostly she seemed to experimentally pluck her guitar strings, trying different combos and occasionally singing a few lines. It sounded like she wasn't entirely sure of where she wanted to take the song, but she was working on it. Sam saw George occasionally glance at Luna. It was obvious he had feelings for her. But it didn't seem like she returned them. Or that's what Sam took away from it. She could easily have been wrong.

After all, look at how wrong she was about Saoirse.

"So, dude… Where do you hail from?" Luna asked. Sam gasped, pointing questioningly at herself. The three nodded.

"Columbus, Ohio. My parents… I-I mean, it's a long story, but my parents got pretty good jobs up here. My mom is a registered nurse. My dad works in construction.

"He was a construction worker for a while before an accident broke his knee. It's… Complicated, but the pain that he was in… Is still in I suspect, forced him to stop. He got a new construction job up here as a foreman. He's gonna be leading the crew instead of working on it. Pretty good job considering how relatively young he is." Sam said. Luna smiled.

"How old are they?" The brown haired rocker asked.

"Well, I'm 13 and they said they had me when Mom was like 24 and Dad was 26 or something. So I'm guessing that they're 36 and 38 now." Sam said. The three nodded, impressed that she had done the math so quickly. Even simple math was tough for George.

Ruth was good at math, knew that most couldn't do math in their head so quickly like that, and Luna was more skilled at creative subjects than things like math. History and English captured her interest, but mostly because she was an Anglophile and she was a music history buff. She could go off for hours about the evolution of music from the Classical Era to Modern Music. Her forte was music between the 50s and 90s. Basically, Rock and Roll up through Classic Rock.

But she didn't automatically reject modern music or music before those decades.

"D'ya have any siblings, Sam?" Ruth asked. Sam nodded.

"I have a brother. Simon. He's 8, and he looks… He's practically the spitting image of our dad. He's not quite as buff as Dad yet, but he's shown that he's really strong and tough. He's really sweet though. He's smart and sensitive and charming." Sam said.

"What about you guys?" Sam asked.

"I have 9 siblings. Lori, Leni, Luan, Lynn, Lincoln, Lucy, Lana and Lola, and Lisa." Sam gaped, openmouthed at Luna.

"I thought Lincoln was just joking." Sam laughed. "What about you, George? Ruth?" 

"Nah, I'm an only child. I have cousins though. Cousins on my Mom's side named Sawyer, Tabitha and Riley. Cousins on my Dad's side named Sascha, Saoirse and Sarah. Sam gasped.

"Um… S-Saoirse… She-she doesn't… She's not your age, is she?" Ruth shrugged.

"About. Maybe a few months difference."

"W-where… Where does she live?"

"Maine." Sam breathed a huge sigh of relief. Of course it was a different Saoirse.

"What-what does she look like?" Ruth raised an eyebrow.

"Um… Brown hair, brown eyes, a bit shorter than me. Her hair is kinda long, down to the middle of her back? Why… Why the interest in that particular cousin?"

"Oh…" Sam sighed deeply in relief.

"No-no reason. It's just such an uncommon name." Sam said. Ruth didn't seem convinced. But she let it drop. "C'mon Georgie. We've all talked about our siblings." Ruth said.

"I have two sisters. Claudia is my older sister. She's 16. Emily is my younger sister. She's 10." George said. The group nodded. Sam had a real start there for a moment. Imagine another girl named Saoirse.

But of course there was bound to be more than one. It was uncommon, not unheard of.

"You alright, Sam? You look a bit spooked, dude." Luna said, concerned. The rest of the group looked at Sam as well. She smiled, nodding.

"Of-of course I'm alright. Luna could tell she was hiding something. But she didn't press the issue.

"Alright. So, would you like to join our band?" Luna asked. Sam nodded, picking up an electric guitar. It felt strangely heavy in her hands. She'd only ever played an acoustic guitar. But this electric guitar… Maybe it would be fun. They started playing a song when Sam noticed that her phone was buzzing. She stopped and went over to the side.

"Hey, guys! Can I get a minute! I got a phone call!" Sam said.

Everyone quieted down, letting Sam talk. Sam picked up the phone.

"Hello? Samantha Sharp speaking." She said politely. She didn't recognize their new number yet.

"Sammy? It's Simon… Are you alright?" Simon asked.

"Oh… Yeah… I'm fine." Sam said. He was surprised at how happy and full of life her voice was. He hadn't heard that level of energy in months. It was wonderful to hear Sam with so much life in her voice again, but a little bit weird too.

"I'm just hanging out with the Rock Club. Luna invited me to hang out with them. I think they're trying to recruit me for their garage band." Sam said.

"I've learned a few things already. The boy has a crush on Luna. Luna doesn't really seem to feel the same way. They've been friends for a long time, though George talks about a time when Luna didn't look like she does now. She used to have long hair and wore dresses and played violin. She can still play, but she mostly plays guitar and she's getting into other rock instruments as well.

"She's incredible. She's only been playing guitar for like 3 years, and she's already able to play Through the Fire and the Flames perfectly. She also played Pachelbel's Canon on the guitar. That was fun to listen to. A combination of Classical and Rock." Sam laughed delightedly. Simon felt tears of joy filling his eyes. He was so happy that Sam was having so much fun.

"I'm… I'm really happy you're enjoying yourself…" Simon said.

"Are you alright, Simon?" Sam asked. "What are you calling about?" Sam asked, her voice concerned now, clearly full of love for him, but worried.

"I'm fine. I just got home and you weren't here. I forgot that you said that Luna had invited you to hang out with them.

"Seriously, don't hurry home for me. Stay and enjoy yourself." Simon insisted. Sam smiled.

"Thanks, Simon… I'll stay a while longer. Luna, Ruth and George have so much energy. George is a little bit shy and Ruth is quiet when she's not singing. Luna's clearly the leader of the group. But they're all really animated and they're all really close." Sam said.

"I'm sure that you'll be just as close with them in no time." Simon said.

"Go back in and enjoy yourself. I love you." Simon said, saying goodbye and hanging up. Sam smiled. Her little brother really was an amazing person. She sighed wistfully. She hadn't been a very good sister these past few weeks.

"Hey, Sammy… Was that your bro?" Luna asked. Sam nodded.  
"He's a bit of a rapscallion sometimes." Luna snorted with laughter.

"Rapscallion?" The brown haired rocker asked. Sam blushed. Luna's laughter was contagious.

"He's a bit mischievous. He's a really good person though, and he's really charismatic. He could be president someday if he wanted to be." Luna laughed.

That description reminded her of Lincoln. He was almost certainly the most charismatic and skilled member of his group of friends, but he somehow had a way about him of making all of his friends feel good about themselves.

"I bet your brother and my brother would get along really well." Luna said.

"My lil' bro is 9. Yours is 8, right? I think they'd get along well." Luna said. Sam smiled.

"Maybe. Does Simon like video games?" Luna asked. Sam cracked up at this.

"He loves video games! Does Lincoln like comic books? Playing dress up? Superheroes?" Sam asked.

"Yes, yes, and yes." Luna said. The two girls laughed.

"Boy, and I thought Simon and Alric were soulmates! Him and Lincoln seem like they were made for each other!" Sam laughed. Luna smirked.

"Use any of the instruments we got here. Start up a song and we'll pick up with you. See how we work as a group." Luna said.

Sam smiled. They were being so cool. She was brand new, but they had accepted her right away. She picked up the bass and began strumming Seven Nation Army.

"I'm gonna fight em all." Sam sang.  
"A seven Nation Army couldn't hold me back!  
"I'm gonna rip em off.  
"Takin' my time right behind my back." Sam finished, passing to Luna.

"And I'm talkin to myself out loud because I can't forget!" Luna sang.

"Back n' forth through my mind behind a cigarette!" George added.

"And the message coming from my eyes says leave it alone!" The group said together, the entire band playing their instruments for the refrain. Luna was an incredible guitarist. She really was a prodigy, and she had so much passion.

The song played through to the end, and Sam had tears of joy in her eyes.

"Ahhahaa! That was fun!" Sam said. She could barely remember the last time she had enjoyed herself this much. George, Luna and Ruth laughed with her. Their conversation didn't go anywhere specific after this. There were brief questions about what Ohio was like. But it became obvious that Sam didn't really want to talk about it.

They didn't think much about it. Maybe the move had been sudden and she was still surprised about it. Maybe a lot of things. Either way, they weren't going to force her to talk about something that made her uncomfortable. Finally, they realized they needed to get home. Sam said goodbye and walked home, going in and seeing Simon finishing up his homework.

Amanda was already home and so was Erik. She felt a strange sense of nostalgia. Like her family was a real family again. She sighed, putting her guitar back in her room and going down to have dinner with her family.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six: A New Dynamic: After School

The four sat around the dinner table. They were eating take out that night, pizza and garlic knots. They hadn't completely unpacked yet, so it was easier to just order out. The pizza was good, but Simon still thought Sam's cooking was better. Sam and Simon were both quiet at first, neither sure they wanted to say anything. Erik and Amanda looked at them occasionally, hoping they would talk first. When they didn't, Erik spoke up.

"So, Sammy… How did school go for you today?" The father asked softly. He knew Sam startled easily, so he was trying to keep his voice down and enjoying modest success. He had a very deep chest, so his voice tended to be loud, even when he wasn't yelling. So his normal was practically a whisper for him.  
"Nothing really to report. I got my guitar back from this girl named Luna Loud and she invited me to her rock club meeting." Sam muttered, exhausted from her day.

"Oh. What is Luna like?" Amanda asked.  
"She's nice. Really friendly and cheerful and cool. She and her friends, George and Ruth want me to be in their band. It's nice of them to try to include me. They said they were impressed by me playing the 12 string with my fingers. But I dunno. I've never really played an electric guitar before and I like Classic Rock, but I don't know if I have enough talent to measure up to their standards.

"They really want me in the band though. And I like them. They've been really nice to me. It would be rude of me to say no after the amazing welcome they gave me." Amanda smiled. She could tell how happy Sam was that she had made friends so quickly. Sam was an interesting girl. She was a little bit shy when it came to new people. It was probably because she spent most of her life taking care of Simon rather than going out with friends and just being a kid.

Amanda blamed herself for that. But Sam was also extremely charming and kind and gentle and people loved how sincere and kind Sam was. She had a charm about her that people gravitated to. It didn't surprise Amanda that Sam had made friends so quickly or that they were charmed by her, or that they were impressed by her skill. She was very talented and intelligent.

"How were your classes? I'm glad you enjoyed making some new friends, but what about your classes?" Erik asked. Sam sighed.

"Most of them were pretty great. My math teacher, Mr. Ryan is weird. Good weird. It's like he's on a different plane from most teachers. He said something about having Ideasthesia, and that he associates numbers with colors and that's why he can write Pi out past 100 digits.

"We have a test this Friday that's gonna have an extra credit question. 1 extra point for every 5 digits of Pi we can write. He says we shouldn't obsess over the extra credit because it won't help if we don't know the basic material." Sam said.

"Very nice. What about your other classes?" Amanda asked.

"Well… They're all pretty cool. Sam talked about her classes, and what she was learning in each one. That lasted about ten minutes before…

"What about you, Simon? How was your first day?" Erik asked. 

"I made a new friend. His name is Gil. I defended Gil from some bullies. He's a little bit different. He didn't know where Ohio was. But he's crazy smart in other things. He's really good at piano. He told me everything about piano from the mechanics of one to how he converted rock songs to piano songs in his spare time.

"He's a little slow in some ways. He said something about Aw-tism…" Simon said, sounding it out.  
"I don't know what that is, but he said that he didn't feel like he belonged in a public school and that he wished he could just be schooled at home or go to a special school for people like him. I told him that was bullshit, and that he belonged here as much as any of us. I guess he doesn't really do too well in his classes, but he's really cool." Simon shrugged.

"How were your classes?" Simon shrugged.

"They were alright. We're learning about the Civil War in History class. Apparently, it wasn't all about slavery. I mean, it was partially about slavery. But not completely." Simon said.

"And gym class, I met a girl named Hattie who had a really strong southern accent. She was kind of pretty. We're sort of friends now.

"I made some friends at lunch. Sebastian, Gabby and Sascha. They're really cool, and I had fun talking to them. Recess was okay. I really just wanted to be left alone, but that kid I told you about, Gil… He was being bullied. I couldn't just let that go. The leader of them… Jeez, what was his name? Oz. He seemed pretty smart, but the other two had about the combined intelligence of a wooden board.

I made a new friend. I'm hoping that I can learn more about Oz. He's really cool and he's pretty shy. But I think he likes me. It was good to make some friends. Erik sighed. He was glad Simon had a good first day as well.

"How was your first day at your new job?" Sam asked. Erik smiled.

"It went really well. I met my work crew. John, Robert, Luis, Ismael, Samuel, Joaquin. Luis and Ismael are brothers and Samuel, and Joaquin are their cousins. There's Rosaria. She's young, only 23, and strong as an ox.

Amanda chuckled. Erik had always had an eye for strong women. Amanda had been into gymnastics and soccer when she was in college when they first met. She was hardly muscular, but she was stronger than the average woman. She'd lost a lot of that physical strength, but she was still above average for a woman her age, thanks to her career as a nurse. She could lift a heavy patient with effort and sometimes with assistance.

"What are your new subordinates like?" Simon asked. Erik sighed.

"I don't really consider them my subordinates. They're my crew, but I'd like them to also be my coworkers. They're really cool. Luis, Ismael, Samuel, Joaquin and Rosaria are incredibly hard workers. Between them, they're between the ages of 23 and 30, and they've all been working since they were 15 or 16. Rosie has been working since she was 14.

"They speak mostly Spanish, so I don't entirely understand what they're saying when they talk, but I gathered that they came from Honduras, except Rosaria. She came from Guatemala."  
"So most of your crew are illegals?" Sam asked. Erik sighed.

"I'm not sure about that. They all at least have their Green Cards to work here, otherwise they couldn't have been hired by the company I work for." Erik said

"Do you speak any Spanish, Dad?" Simon asked. Erik nodded.

"A little bit. I took Spanish in school and I haven't completely forgotten my lessons. I'm hardly as good now as I was when I was 18. But I'm good enough to get the gist of what they say. They speak more Spanish than English and I'm sure after a while with them, I'll start picking up more of the language." Erik said.

"What project are you working on now?" Simon asked. He never really wanted to go into construction, but he respected his father for getting back on his feet, even if he didn't really like him. It was a lot of years of dislike and contempt to just overwrite like that. But Simon at least respected that his father was trying.

"What about you, Mom?" Sam asked. Amanda smiled.

"Well, I'm the head nurse now, so I met my staff. I learned a little bit about them from working with them. There's a very nice woman named Maria. She has a daughter about Simon's age and a son who I want to say is 15. She's been working there for a while, so she's helping me get settled." Amanda said.

"Oh. That's interesting. Is she older than you? Younger?" Sam asked.

"Well…" Amanda laughed. "I didn't ask how old she was, but I think she's about the same age. She's actually got family in the same city we came from. She asked if we knew them. We don't. Their name is Casagrande and they're a pretty big extended family and they own a small store down below their apartment." Amanda said. Sam nodded.

"Does her husband work at the hospital too?" Sam asked. Amanda sighed.

"I don't think so. I'm pretty sure she and her husband are legally separated. It's complicated. She didn't specifically say they were. But she said that he was in Peru. He is a doctor, but he's doing charity work down there. I don't really know her well enough yet to go into that kind of conversation with her." Amanda said.

"What are your other coworkers like?" Simon asked. Amanda talked a bit about the doctors, nurses and aides on the floor and how she was getting along with them. It was a good dinner, and despite Sam's depression, Sam enjoyed talking about this. Talking about anything other than her fears helped her get through it.

"Sammy, you have a therapy appointment after school tomorrow. A woman named Doctor Lopez. I've been asking around a bit and they say she's very good with young people who've been traumatized." Amanda said gently. Sam nodded. The blonde girl went up and went to bed early. She wasn't in the mood to talk. Simon followed her upstairs.

"Um… Sammy… Can you and I hang out for a while? I'm doing a painting of you for art class and I'd like to take some pictures so I have something to go by."  
"No." Sam said. Her voice wasn't mean. It just sounded cold. Simon was hurt by how suddenly Sam had turned to ice like that.

"Simon, I don't want you painting me. I- Just leave me alone. You couldn't even cut my hair right. You made it way too short." Sam said bitterly. She wasn't really angry at Simon. He was just an easy target right now and she was angry and upset in general. Simon sighed and went upstairs as well, locking himself in his room, ripping the Band-Aid off his face.

He remembered that fight. It was when he first failed Sam. When he had first proven. To himself. To her. What a pathetic loser he was. He stared at the cut on his face. The day he had watched those savages try to cut her hair… He had taken some serious blows to the head. He didn't really remember that day too well. But he remembered his failure all too well. He was supposed to be Sam's hero. No wonder she didn't love him anymore.

He scratched idly at the cut. He had kept scratching at it. He'd kept deepening it so it wouldn't heal. He figured one day he would forget about it and let it scar over. But that day wasn't today. He still had penance to do. He still owed Sam a serious debt as it was obvious to him that she hadn't forgiven him for his failure. He would have ripped his entire face off for her if that would make her love him again. But for now, he just picked and picked.

He felt blood on his wound as he continued to jab, poke and rip at the wound, making sure it wouldn't heal. He looked in the vanity mirror in his room and watched droplets of blood dribble down his cheek and begin to drip onto his shirt. He dug harder. This wasn't enough. The pain he felt wasn't enough. There had to be proof of his weakness forever. He could never allow himself to forget how he betrayed Sam. How he had failed her.

He shrieked when there was a knock on his door.

"Simon? Sweetie? Is everything alright?" Amanda asked.

"B-busy, Mom!" Simon shouted. Amanda nodded.

"Well, come out when you're done." She said. Simon agreed and grimaced, continuing to pick at what had just recently turned into a scab but was now bleeding in earnest again.

-0-

"What is it, Mom? Dad?" Simon asked. Amanda had Simon sit down.

"Simon… What happened with Sam earlier wasn't your fault. It's really sweet that you want to paint Sam and I think you should continue to paint her if that's what makes you happy." Amanda said.

"Nothing makes me happy anymore." Simon said angrily.

"I'm going to bed." Simon growled, brushing his teeth and getting in bed, falling asleep quickly. He didn't sleep well. He had nightmares. The same shadow showed up in his dream. It had been a while since he'd seen it. He gasped as the shadow smirked maliciously at him, its eyes lighting up a horrible glowing electric blue. It seemed not to walk, but glide over the ground towards him.

"You screwed up, you know." The shadow said cruelly, its smirk widening.

"Why would you think that she would ever love or trust you again after what you did to her? Saoirse and her allies hurt her so badly and it's all your fault. You weren't strong enough to save her. No wonder she hates you. No wonder she's disgusted by a little fuck up like you!"

"No! It's not my fault! It's her fault!"

"That's right. It is her fault. If she wasn't such a freak, none of this would have happened in the first place… Right? If she hadn't fallen in love with a girl, everything would have been fine. She would never have gotten hurt and you never would have had to leave your friends. Right?" The voice asked, a malicious glee filling its voice.

"No! No! That's not true! It's nobody's fault! Sammy can't help who she falls in love with!" Simon pleaded, more trying to confirm it to himself than to the Shadow.

"I can tell you don't really believe that." The Shadow said.

"You hate Sammy and Sammy hates you. You don't have to support her. She doesn't deserve your support. Do you think she'd support you if you turned out to be gay?

"What if you fell for Alric? Do you think Sam would support you? If the answer is 'I don't know', then maybe your loyalty is with the wrong person. That Gil kid seems like he'd be a good new sidekick for you. He seems eager to please. He'd probably give you all the support you want… God knows you don't deserve it, but he seems like he doesn't have the best judgment on that front.

"Or maybe you'll do everyone a favor and just disappear from their lives. Just disappear and never come back. Do the right thing for Sammy for once in your life. She always deserved better than you." The Shadow said. "And you never deserved an angel like her."

-0-

Simon woke up with a start, feeling tears running down his cheeks. He immediately leapt out of bed, trying to keep his breathing steady. The Shadow was right. No. The Shadow had always been right. He didn't deserve someone as amazing as Sam. He didn't deserve any of what he'd had his whole life. He packed some clothes and left. It was around 2 in the morning. He couldn't bother anyone saying goodbye. But he wrote a note to Sam and left it next to her bed, kissing her goodbye one last time.

He kissed her and said that he loved her, trying to keep himself steady through his tears. He walked out the door, sighing as he set out with a backpack and his phone.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: A New Development: Simon's Betrayal

Simon had been walking for hours, not sure where he was going. He just kind of wandered for a while, trying to calm himself down. After about an hour, he was calm. But he was also lost and he was pretty sure he wasn't even in his own neighborhood anymore. He had walked past a house that had clearly seen better days several times. Simon wasn't sure he believed in fate or destiny. But maybe he was meant to find this house.

It looked inhabited. There was a light on in the second floor and a silhouette went by the window every once in a while. It was clearly a girl's silhouette. He sighed. It was almost five in the morning. It was still pitch black out, but he needed to get something to drink. He was parched and tired and his legs were barely working. He was practically falling asleep on his feet.

He trudged up to the door and rang the bell. There was the sound of footsteps from upstairs and a tall young woman with large blonde hair. She sighed.

"What do you want, kid? Isn't it literally a bit late at night to be visiting friends? Are you one of Linky's friends?" She asked. Simon shook his head.

"Could I get something to drink?" Simon asked bluntly. The blonde girl rolled her eyes.

"Come on in. Keep quiet. Most of the family is asleep. How old even are you?" The girl asked as Simon collapsed on the couch.

"I'm eight. My name is Simon." Simon said.

"Lori. Here. Is water literally okay?" She asked, still on her phone.

"Thank you." He said draining it in a few gulps. Now that she looked at him, he looked flushed and exhausted. She got a thermometer and took his temperature. He was running a slight fever. He was around 100oF. It wasn't anything to panic over. But he needed rest.

"Simon… How long have you been outside?" She asked. Simon looked at his phone.

"Well… I left home at 2 in the morning. Why are you up s-s-s-so early?" He asked, his shivering had gotten worse since he got inside. It was hardly frigid outside, but it was only in the high 40s, and he just had a sweatshirt and pajama bottoms on. He wasn't dressed for the weather he was in.

"Would you like me to call your family?" Lori asked gently, sitting down next to him. Simon gasped, shaking his head violently.

"No! I can never go back!" He cried. Lori's eyes widened.

"Why not?" She asked. He broke down, sobbing.

"I just can't! I betrayed Sammy and they took her clothes off and dumped them in the garbage and she got really badly hurt because of me! It's all my fault."

"What do you mean?" Lori asked.

"There was a dark alley and a bunch of guys and they hurt her and it's my fault!" Simon sobbed.

"And Sammy hates me now!"

It was obvious to Lori that Simon didn't understand what had happened to Sam. He seemed to have a basic if superficial knowledge of the events as they happened, but not what it actually meant. Luna had been talking about a girl named Sam and how she was the newest member of their band. Could it be the same Sam? Sam was a common enough name. It could have been another Sam.

"What is your last name?" Luna asked.

"Sharp." Simon said. Yep, it was the same Sam. Luna had mentioned Sam Sharp. Lori sighed. She couldn't just send Simon home. First of all, it was five in the morning and she couldn't just walk home with him, especially if he was lost. Second, she couldn't drive yet. She was only 15.

"Simon, give me your phone." Lori ordered. Simon timidly opened the phone's home screen and handed it to Lori. She was so authoritative. He had to obey her.

She looked in the contacts and dialed 'Home'. The phone rang three times and then a male voice picked up.

"Hello? Sharp Residence. Erik Sharp speaking. How may I help you?" he asked politely.

"Mr. Sharp? My name is Lori Loud. Simon is at my house right now. I'm not sure what happened, but he says he left at 2 in the morning." She said.

Erik thanked Lori and said he'd be right over. As he hung up, Rita and Lynn came downstairs to see Lori awake and Simon sitting on the couch, not looking so hot. Rita went over to him and felt his forehead.

"Ooh, you feel pretty warm." She said gently, getting some medicine from the cabinet and giving it to him with some juice.

"Thank you." He said, looking exhausted.

"If you don't mind my asking, who are you?" Lynn asked.

"I'm Simon Sharp, sir." Simon said.

"I-I was just about to leave. I just needed a drink of water." He said. Rita shook her head.

"Nonsense. You stay until we can get everything sorted out. How did you come to be here?" She asked.

"Well, I walked." Simon said as if it was obvious.

"In 45 degree weather? In that?" Rita asked. Simon shrugged.

"I couldn't stay at home." He said. She scowled.

"Why not?" She asked.

"Because Sammy hates me and it's my fault she got hurt." Simon said. Rita raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" She asked. Simon explained to the best of his knowledge what had happened to Sam, how some kids at her school hated her. He didn't say it was because Sam was gay. He had no right to tell anyone that.

He explained what he knew of what happened to Sam in that alleyway. Rita gasped in horror, immediately understanding what had happened and why they had to move.

"Simon." Rita said, hugging Simon tightly.

"That wasn't your fault. Sam is angry because of what happened to her, not at you"

"I know it's hard to understand right now, because you respect Sam and her taking her anger out on you makes it seem like she doesn't love you anymore, doesn't it?" Rita asked. Simon nodded helplessly, relaxing instantly in this very motherly woman's embrace. Her hug felt so warm and gentle.

"It wasn't your fault and I'm sure Sam still loves you. She just needs you to be understanding. She probably doesn't understand how she's feeling right now either.

"I know it's confusing. But sometimes you'll need to give her space, and sometimes she might need you to reassure her. It's complicated." Rita said, Simon nodded, feeling slightly reassured already.

"So I understand why you ran away. But I need you to go home and try to work things out with your parents and your sister." Rita said. Simon nodded.

A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door and Lori answered it. When Simon saw that it was Amanda, he ran over, hugging the woman tightly. Amanda smiled at him, hugging him back.

"Come on, sweetie. Thank Mr. and Mrs. Loud and let's get you home." Amanda said lovingly.

Simon thanked the ones who were down there and left with Amanda, going back home, where Erik was waiting and sat on the couch with Simon. He went over and sat next to Erik, curling up next to him.

"I'm sorry." Simon whispered. Erik smiled and pulled Simon close to him.

"It's alright, son. I'm sure this is really confusing for you right now. I want you to know that Amanda and I are here for you." Erik said.

"You can talk to us whenever you need to." He said. Simon growled.

"Where were you when Sammy was being bullied at school? Drunk on the fucking couch? And what about you mom? When Sammy said she needed to talk to you about something important?

"You were too busy getting to your second job! And what about all those times Sammy wanted to spend time with friends or go to a birthday party or just spend a Saturday doing something she wanted to do and you were too busy at a job and you were too drunk on your arse to do anything about it? Where were you two then? Don't even answer that! I don't want to hear your bullshit!

"Sam was here for me all these years and I tried to be there for her when she was suffering! You two were nowhere to be seen! Don't pretend you care now!" Simon snapped, storming back up to his room, slamming the door, causing Sam to wake up with a jolt. She moaned lightly and fell back asleep.

-0-

Sam went down to the kitchen in the morning, sighing. It was going to be another long day, but maybe she could try to enjoy it. She would at least see Luna and her other new friends, and Simon was always there for her. When she got downstairs, she saw Erik and Amanda sitting on the couch with a third person who looked like a priest or something. The priest was dressed in his black button up shirt and pants with a belt with the white strip in his collar.

He had a Bible with him, though he looked like he was just carrying it. It was a fancy white and gold, leatherbound Bible with gold leaf that looked like it was the most expensive thing he had on him. She was pretty sure he wouldn't read from it. Sam didn't know exactly why the priest was there, but she was sure it couldn't be good. There was something oddly ominous about the way he was looking at her. Like he felt sorry for her. Like he was caught between pity and disgust for her.

Simon was there too, looking nervous and a little bit guilty. He couldn't look her in the eye, like he knew he had done something bad and had hurt her.

"Sam… We'd like to talk to you." Amanda said. Sam nodded nervously, sitting down with her parents. She was trembling with nerves, not sure what to expect, but positive that it wouldn't be good.

"Sammy… You know we love you, right?" Amanda asked. Sam wasn't sure she liked where this was going, but she agreed. Of course she knew they loved her.

"And we want what's best for you… We know, Sammy. We know you're gay." Erik said. His voice was gentle, but there was a sadness in it that cut Sam to her core.

"We don't think it's your fault, Sammy. Nobody's perfect, and everyone makes mistakes. Your father and I aren't free of mistakes either. But we want to help you find your way. We hope that one day, you'll be cured and you'll marry a nice man and be happy. We know you're not happy now." Amanda said.

"So we signed you up for camp." Erik said. Sam gasped.

"C-camp?" She asked. Amanda nodded.

"It's-it's a religious camp. They'll help you confront whatever demons you have in your life and they'll help you get better. They have a very high success rate. Many people have written testimonials about it and how the camp helped them find their way free of sin." The mother said.

"What? Sin! But you and mom aren't even religious!" Protested. She had been raised to be vaguely Christian. But they didn't really go to church, except maybe on Christmas and Easter, and even that wasn't a given. How could they be spouting this Christian Right crap? But more than being angry, Sam was terrified.

"Mommy! Daddy! Please! I don't-there's nothing wrong with me! I'm just not attracted to boys!" Sam pleaded. The priest spoke next. He had been silent up to that point.

"My child, it's not your fault. The Devil has so many ways of tricking people away from the light, and despite our best efforts, Satan's call is very alluring.

"LGBTs have heard so many lies about their condition. They were born that way. It was genetic. They're a woman in a man's body. They didn't have a choice. I'm here to take you somewhere you can learn that you may not have chosen to be gay in the first place. But you can choose to be straight now. You can choose the right path." The man said softly.

He had such a calm, soothing voice, Sam almost forgot how terrified she was.

"H-how… How did you find out?"

"I told them." Simon said sadly.

"I could tell that you weren't going to get better on your own, and I thought that maybe if you weren't gay anymore, you could be happy again. Maybe you could be my Sammy again." Simon whispered.

Sam gasped. The one person she'd always told herself would never ever betray her had turned his back on her. She'd trusted him. She believed in him and told him things she wouldn't have told her best friends. Because as sad as it was, Simon was her best friend. She gaped, opening and closing her mouth a few times, before she leapt up and screamed at the priest.

"NO! There's NOTHING wrong with me! I won't go to your janky ass camp!" Sam yelled. Erik observed her levelly for a moment.

"Then you're not welcome here anymore." He said, his voice turning cold. Sam whimpered lightly, but went to get her shoes and left the house.

It was surprisingly cold outside that day. She walked around, not knowing where she was going. She still didn't know the town very well. Fortunately, she ended up running into Lincoln on her way past the arcade. He smiled at her. But his smile was cold and cruel now.

"Hey, Sammy… You know, Simon was at our house this morning." Lincoln said. His tone was mean and condescending. She nodded, hoping she was mistaken.

"He was? That's nice. Thank you for calling us and bringing him home." Sam said.

"Yeah, of course. He told us something pretty interesting. You're gay, huh? A little dyke, huh?" Lincoln laughed.

"God, you're pathetic! Did you actually think someone as amazing as Luna would want to be friends with a freak like you?" Lincoln mocked. Sam gasped, tears filling her eyes.

"N-no… She-she'd be okay with it!" Sam protested. Lincoln's laugh got louder.

"Yeah right! Keep telling yourself that! I wonder what she'll say to you when you get to school today!" Lincoln said. Sam sighed. He was right.

"Now, we'll treat you exactly how you deserve to be treated." Lincoln said, shoving Sam down and holding her down while some boys, probably Lincoln's friends gathered around them.

Sam screamed, waking up, gasping for breath.

"Just-just a nightmare… It's alright, Sammy. It's-it's alright. It's not real. Simon would never betray you. She felt tears running down her cheeks as she got up and got a drink of water before going back to bed.

-0-

Amanda and Erik woke Simon and Sam up. They took Simon's temperature, seeing that he had gone down and was fine to go to school. They brought the two kids downstairs and served breakfast. Sam was still a bit hesitant to eat, but Simon convinced her that she should at least eat a little to keep up her strength for the day. She seemed conflicted.

"Simon, I'm-I'm not really that hungry." Sam said. Simon shook his head.

"No. I'm not gonna let you keep starving yourself. I want you to eat breakfast at least. I can't make you eat lunch. I'm not there with you. But I can insist that you eat breakfast and dinner." Simon said. Sam sighed and ate her breakfast. She smiled at Simon, thanking him.

Sam and Simon went to school. Overall, it was a pretty good day. Sam had thought that it wouldn't be. Her nightmare was still ringing in her head, casting doubt on everything she thought she knew. Sam had an appointment with Doctor Lopez the next day. She was really nervous about it. She was going to see Doctor Lopez after school and in some ways, she was looking forward to it, and in other ways, she just wished she didn't have to go. Would Doctor Lopez support her or judge her.

She didn't know, and she couldn't get the thought out of her mind. What if she judged her, and decided to tell her parents about her abnormality? Sam knew that she had an obligation to keep their sessions private unless Sam was a danger to herself or others. But she was having trouble trusting anyone. What if Doctor Lopez decided Sam really did need to be 'fixed', and recommended a rehab camp to her parents? Sam didn't really like being gay, but it was who she was and she was pretty sure she couldn't 'fix' it.

Simon's day at school was pretty good. Oz was kind of a jerk to him. But according to Gil, Oz was a jerk to everyone, and Simon had made an enemy of Oz. Oz's anger at Simon was palpable at recess. It wasn't like he was doing anything overt. It was obvious he was angry. Simon had beaten up his goons. But overall, Oz wasn't too worried about them.

Oz was also cautious about trying to fight Simon himself, especially after he had seen how Simon had fought the last time. Although Simon seemed like a really clean cut guy, he could be vicious when he was fighting. In a way, he admired Simon though. Simon's cunning in a fight was impressive, and although he had chosen the wrong side, he was willing to give Simon another chance to be his friend. When recess was over, he went to art class and continued his work from yesterday.

He worked on his painting of Sam in art class. He continued on the outline, finishing up his picture of her surrounded by music and dressed in a gorgeous blue dress with her hair in a long braid. He'd always loved her long hair, and was sad that she wanted it cut. But he respected her decision nevertheless. He started painting, and although he didn't finish, he got about a fourth of the painting done.

He worked very carefully and meticulously, making sure every brush stroke was perfect. He didn't have a choice. He needed to be careful so when he showed it to Sam, she would like it. He had to make sure that it was perfect, just like Sam. Despite what she was going through. Despite the pain she was in, she was still perfect, and Simon had to make everyone see what he saw when he looked at her.

He was told that the painting was very impressive, even though it wasn't done yet, and he went home at the end of the day to see Sam curled up on the couch. She'd had a panic attack at school and was sent home early. Simon went and sat down on the couch with Sam, cuddling up with her. He looked at her lovingly, wrapping his arms around her. She gently stroked his hair, smiling weakly at him. She was still exhausted from her panic attack, and she needed to rest. Simon needed her now though.

"I'm sorry for how I treated you last night." She said, hugging him tightly.

"You didn't deserve that. It wasn't your fault about my hair. I appreciate that you cut it for me and you did a good job." She said, her voice trembling slightly. Simon looked worriedly at her.  
"Sammy… Are you angry at me for what happened?" Simon asked. Sam sighed.

"Of course not. None of that was your fault." Sam said. Simon sighed.

"Do you still love me?" The young boy asked. Sam walked over and sat next to Simon, holding him in her arms.  
"Of course I still love you. Simon, I-It's not your fault. I'm just… I'm having trouble keeping my emotions in check right now.

"I'm trying, but just know that if I yell at you or say mean things, it doesn't mean I don't love you." Sam said gently. Simon hugged his older sister tightly.

"What are Luna and her friends like?" Simon asked. Sam sighed happily.

"They're actually a lot like the friends I had back in Columbus. They're really cool and really nice and I feel really at ease with them.

"I'm a little worried that they'll find out about my abnormality and abandon me. But I guess that hasn't happened yet, so I should just be happy with my friends while it lasts." Sam said. Simon hugged her, kissing her on the cheek.

"There's nothing abnormal about you. You're smart and strong and beautiful and anyone would be lucky to be your friend. They should be grateful they have you." Simon said.

Sam smiled at Simon. It was sweet how innocent he was. But she was pretty sure that wasn't the way the world worked. She was pretty sure that if and when George, Ruth, Finny and Luna found out, that they would abandon her like the sack of crap she really was.

"That's sweet, but things don't work that way." Sam muttered. Simon cocked his head.

"Why not? Luke, Estelle, and Bridget didn't abandon you when they found out you were gay. Why should Luna, George, Ruth and Finny?" Simon asked. Sam sighed.

"My old friends had known me for years. I don't know if I'll have the benefit of that with my new friends, especially if I keep lying to them. I…" Simon cut her off, putting a finger up to her lips and looking her right in the eye, demanding that she look at him.

"Samantha Abigail Sharp. There is _nothing_ wrong with you. You're an amazing person and anyone would be lucky to have you as a friend. If they reject you because of who you are, that's their problem. Not yours." Simon said, hugging his Sammy tightly.

"I love you, Sammy, and there is nothing wrong with you." Simon said, hugging her and comforting her until she calmed down a bit.

"Sammy? Could I sleep with you tonight?" Simon asked gently. Sam sighed.

"I wake up sometimes with bad dreams. You should sleep in your own room. You'll get a better night's sleep." Sam said. Simon sighed.

"Please?" he begged. Sam shook her head.

"No. You're eight. You can sleep in your own bed." Sam said impatiently.

"But maybe me being there will make it so you don't have bad dreams!" Simon said.

Sam exploded.

"I SAID NO!" She shouted, turning her back on him. Simon gasped, heading up to his room, feeling a little resentful and angry. It was Sam's fault they had to move. It was her fault he lost his friends. No. It wasn't Sam's fault… It was his fault. He took deep breaths, trying to calm down. He needed to calm himself down. He couldn't be panicking.

He needed to do his homework. He sat down, trembling slightly with anxiety, but he found that he didn't really have the focus he needed to do it. He went downstairs and sat with Amanda. He wasn't sure he fully trusted her yet. But he needed help.

"Mom? If-if Sammy told you something different about her… Would-would you still love her?" Simon asked. Amanda hugged him tightly.

"Of course I would. Nothing she tells me or does could ever make me not love her. Is this about what happened back in Columbus?" Amanda asked. Simon nodded.

"Do you know what happened?" Amanda asked. Simon nodded.  
"What? What happened to Sammy? What is it? I want to help her, but I can't if nobody will tell me anything." Amanda said.

"I-I can't tell you. I promised not to." Simon said guiltily. He could tell how badly Amanda wanted to help Sam. He may have been angry at Sam, but he would still never betray her confidence. She trusted him with her secret. She trusted him to keep it, and he would never tell anyone as long as he lived if she didn't want him to. He would die with her secret if he needed to. Most people would consider him a fanatic for Sam. But she deserved his complete loyalty.

She had always been good to him. She'd taken care of him. Even when she wanted to go out and hang out with her friends. Even when she just wanted to be alone, she was always available for him. And he owed her nothing less than his complete loyalty.

So why was he having so much trouble keeping his mouth shut? Why did he want to tell his mom so badly what was bothering Sam?

"Please, Simon? I know how loyal you are to Sam. I know how much you love her. But I can't help her if you won't tell me and she won't tell me. I know you want to keep her secrets. I know you love her.

"But sometimes loving someone means doing what's right for them, even if they don't want you to. Sam didn't want you to stop her from killing herself. But you did because you loved her, right?" Amanda asked. She knew that was a low blow. She knew it would come back to bite her in the future. She knew that Sam would be furious at her for using that. But she just wanted the chance to be the mother that she hadn't been in the past.

Simon was in tears.

"Fine! Sammy is gay! She was being bullied because she confessed to a girl who wanted to punish her for being in love with a girl!" Simon sobbed. After he said it, he heard a gasp and looked up.

"S-Sammy…" Simon said.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight: A Sharp Confrontation

"S-Sammy… I-I'm sorry! I was just trying to help you!" Simon pleaded. Sam was silent for a moment. Simon could see her wrestling with feelings of anger and self-loathing and fear. Simon could tell how betrayed Sam felt. She had trusted Simon with her secret and Simon had betrayed her.  
"How could you?" Sam whispered. Her dream had come true. Her nightmare. Simon had betrayed her. She stared at Amanda in horror, her face chalk white.

"Sammy… Calm… Down." Amanda said as Sam bolted, locking herself in her room. She immediately began preparing to leave home. She knew she wouldn't be welcome anymore. Even Simon didn't love her anymore. But where could she go. Surely Luna already knew. And if Luna knew, the whole band knew. She didn't have any other friends in Royal Woods really. She sighed. She'd figure it out. Maybe Lincoln was nicer than he had been in her dream.

She grabbed her diary. Simon had bought a beautiful black leatherbound diary with silver leaf and a silver lock on it for her birthday. He had spent the rest of his Christmas money on it. She got her guitar, her violin and the book she was reading. She couldn't stand not knowing what happened next. She got her smart phone and earphones so that she could listen to music. She had a huge library of Classical Music, Opera, Classic Rock and Oldies and modern rock.

Overall, she had over 10,000 songs in her smart phone. She had saved up to buy the 256 GB phone because she knew her phone would be holding a lot of music. She knew at least 1/3 of the songs on the phone by heart already. She went to the window and opened it. As she was about to climb out, she heard a knock on her door.

"Sammy? I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to betray you! Mom and Dad want to talk to you! They say they're not angry. They just want to talk to you!" Simon pleaded. She heard a series of clicks, and Simon broke into her room Sam actually smirked.

"Not bad. You've been practicing." She said.

"But I have to go." Sam said.

"They may not be angry at me, but I know they won't accept me." Sam said. Simon's face fell when he saw the package Sam had with her.

"Sammy… Please, just listen to Mom and Dad. If they don't accept you, I'll leave with you. I'll go wherever you go.

"No you won't." Sam said coldly.

"I don't trust you, Simon. I asked you to keep my sexuality secret and you betrayed me." Sam said. She saw a flicker of pain fill his eyes. It disappeared just as quickly, but his voice when he spoke again was heartbreaking.

"I-I understand." He said.

"Please don't leave yet though? Give Mom and Dad a chance to talk to you?" The blonde boy pleaded. Sam sighed.  
"No." The girl said, heading out the door and leaving the house with her backpack, ignoring what Amanda and Erik said.

-0-

It was chilly that day. Sam was shivering slightly. She knew she had nowhere to go. She still had some money though from Christmas. She tended to save it, and so she went to a diner and sat down, drowning her misery in food and tea. She knew she was going to be sick later from eating too much. But it distracted her from her fear and loneliness.

The waitress came over to her table and filled her cup of tea again.

"You look upset." The young woman said. Sam nodded helplessly.

"Is there any chance you have jobs available here? Even just washing dishes would be fine." Sam said.

"I'm almost fourteen and I'm a really hard worker."

"I'll get the manager. We'll see what we can do." The waitress said. Sam smiled sadly.  
"Thanks." She said.

"I get off in about a half hour. Would you like to talk for a while?" The young woman asked. She didn't look any older than fifteen.

"I guess so." Sam said.

"My name is Dana. What's your name?" The fifteen year old asked.

"I'm Sam." Sam said.

"Well, Sam. Enjoy your meal." Dana said, setting the meatloaf dinner on the table. Sam dug in, finishing the whole thing. She felt disgusting after eating so much. But at least she wasn't hungry anymore. She had school the next day. It was getting late, but she didn't really care. She just couldn't be at home. It was getting dark out. Fortunately, that meant Amanda and Erik couldn't go out to look for her.

She waited for the hour, paying her bill and sitting until Dana got off and sat outside with her.

"So, what's up, Sam?" Dana asked politely. Sam sighed.

"My brother betrayed me." Sam said bitterly. Dana leaned in, chuckling wryly.

"Yeah. Siblings can be a pain sometimes. But you gotta know they love you. Even if they don't always show it. But you can't have left home at 8 o' Clock at night just because your brother did something bad."

"Well… What he-what he did… Is-do you think being gay is bad?" Sam asked nervously. She hoped she'd never see Dana again after this. So hopefully even if she did think it was bad, it wouldn't matter.

"Not really. Whether you're gay, straight or other, it matters who you are, not what you are." Dana shrugged. "Sam… Did your parents get mad at you for being gay?" Dana asked, putting a sympathetic hand on the blonde girl's shoulder.

"No. My little brother was talking to our mom and he told her that I'm gay. She kind of tricked the information out of him, so it's not entirely his fault. He's only eight." Sam said.

"But I made him promise me that he wouldn't tell. Now I'm afraid that they won't love me anymore." Sam sighed. Dana hugged Sam.

"Listen, Sammy… You have to give your parents a chance to tell you whether they accept you. If you haven't stayed and let them tell you for themselves, how will you know?" Dana asked. Sam shrugged.

"I had some problems back in my old city. People weren't too cool about me being gay. I'm not sure I feel safe waiting to find out. I'd rather things just go back to the way they were and never have to know. Because if I never know how they feel, I can never be hurt by them." Sam said.

Dana smiled wistfully.

"But what if they do accept you and you're always scared about how they feel. You seem like you're really vulnerable right now. Whatever happened back in your old home, will you ever be able to heal if you don't take this chance and find out how they really feel about you?" Dana asked. Sam looked away nervously. She didn't know how to answer that.

"I-I don't know. I'm just scared. What if they send me to some creepy priest in some freaky camp to try to fix me?"

"If that happens, my parents have a guest room. I'll talk to them. They're pretty open. This is where I live." Dana said, handing Sam a piece of paper with her address on it.

"I know it might be a little forward of me. Trust me, I'm straight. But I can't stand it when people judge other people for who they are or what color they are or who they love. It makes me sick." Dana said. She had an uncle who had recently gotten married to a man, and some of his friends kind of fell away from him after he came out as gay. And she loved her uncle. She couldn't see why his sexuality had anything to do with what kind of person he was.

"Do you think my parents will still love me?" Sam asked. Dana sighed.

"I don't know. But they're your parents. You owe them the chance to tell you for themselves." Dana said calmly. Sam sighed. She was still scared. But Dana was right.

"Yeah… Y-yeah… I-do you know how to get to my house?" Dana shook her head.  
"No. But why don't you tell me the address and I can take you there." Dana said.

Sam nodded and the two walked over to Sam's house. Dana hugged Sam.  
"Whatever happens, it's gonna be alright." Dana said.

"This is my address. If you need someone to talk to, you can always come to me." She said. Sam smiled and went back into her house, where she was immediately hugged tightly by Erik and Amanda.

"Sammy!" Erik said. It was obvious he'd been crying. His eyes were puffy and red and his face was red. It looked like he had been yelling.

"D-Daddy… Are-are you mad at me?" Sam asked timidly. Erik shook his head.

"Of course not, sweetie." Erik said, taking Sam and sitting down with her.

"Sammy… We're not angry at you. We're concerned. You seemed so out of it. You've been hurt and we want to help you. We know it's not your choice to be gay, and whoever you end up with, we'll be happy for you. If this is just a phase, if you're just experimenting and you end up with a boy, we'll be happy for you. If you end up with a girl, we'll be happy for you." Amanda said, holding Sam tightly.

"How long have you known you were attracted to girls?" Erik asked, seeming strangely disconnected now that he was talking to Sam.

"Um-I… Since close to the end of last school year… I-I started falling for Saoirse in May." Sam said. Erik's face wrinkled with a frown.  
"And you didn't tell us? You didn't trust us?" He asked, seeming hurt.

Amanda looked at him meaningfully.

"Erik, you were drunk on the couch at that point in our lives. You probably wouldn't have processed what she said anyway." Amanda said, sounding annoyed.

"It's alright, Sammy… I'm sorry I wasn't here for you sooner. I'm sorry we weren't here to help you. Do you want to talk to us now? Tell us what happened?" Amanda asked. Sam shook her head.

"Do-do you promise you're not upset? I-I know you wanted me to give you grandchildren." Sam said. Amanda chuckled.

"Sammy… What we want is for you to be happy. That's our first desire for you." Amanda said.

"If you have children, we'll be happy. If you decide to adopt, that's great. If not, and you just want to be happy with whoever you end up with, that's fine too." Amanda said.

Sam nodded.

"I-I'm sorry." Sam said. "I'm sorry I didn't trust you. I… No! I-I tried to tell you!" Sam said angrily.

"I tried to talk to you that night. I asked you for a little bit of your time and you cared more about your job than you did about me!" Sam said, her anger and bitterness returning in full force.

"At least Simon tried to help me! Even if he is a stupid little fuck up who can't keep his mouth shut!" Sam snarled.

Simon, who had come downstairs when he heard Sam come in the door, gasped upon hearing what Sam thought of him. He screamed in rage and pain.

"I hate you too! You stupid fucking dyke!" Simon screamed, storming up to his room. A look of utter alarm and pain filled Sam's eyes. Amanda tried to hug her, but Sam pushed her away and ran up to her own room, collapsing on her bed in tears.

Eventually, she fell asleep, tossing and turning, not finding it easy to sleep. Simon hated her. She felt horrible thoughts drift in and out of her dreams. Her parents were just pretending to accept her. They were just waiting for the right moment to throw her out of their lives. Simon had never loved her. He only put up with her because he needed her to take care of him. Her friends never liked her. Most of her night was like that. But Simon wasn't doing much better.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine: Simon's Desperation

Simon trembled as he sat on his bed. He was a monster. No wonder Sam hated him. He was a stupid little fuck up. Sam always knew, hadn't she?

"How long do you think she's been waiting for you to shape up? How long do you think her guilt over a tiny mistake she made 8 years ago has forced her to tolerate you?

"How long do you think she's given you the benefit of the doubt, telling herself that today, you'd start being worthwhile? Today, you'd stop being a worthless piece of shit." Came a cruel voice that was shockingly like his own, but ice cold and hateful. He looked up and saw a shadowy figure that seemed to bear a passing resemblance in shape to him. His features were sharper though and his smile was wide and cruel.

"N-no… Sammy does love me." A high, cruel laugh rang out in Simon's ears.  
"Yeah right! She said it herself! You tried to help her, but you're a big mouthed screw-up who betrayed her deepest secret. No wonder Sam stopped loving you. There was only so long someone as amazing as her could put up with a little loser like you!" The shadow said, his smile widening with each cruel word he spoke.

Simon tried to deny what the shadow was saying. But he knew it was true. He'd always been mediocre at best. He'd always relied more on her than she ever did on him. She'd never needed him. He'd always needed her more than was fair to expect. She was practically his mother. Amanda was the one who popped him out of her. But Sam was the one who raised him. He had owed her his unfailing loyalty and devotion, and all he had ever given her was one disappointment after another.

"I wonder if she'd love you more if all she had was a memory of you?" The shadow asked casually. Simon's eyes widened.

"I-what… I… What do you mean?" He whimpered.

"If you were dead and all she had was a memory… Maybe she'd have a better opinion of you. Maybe if you killed yourself, she could heal in peace and she would cry for you and love you.

"You're certainly no good to her alive. That's for sure. But if living is that important to you… Continue your unsightly existence and just keep crawling along like the loathsome little worm you are. Continue to be a disgusting little diaper stain on Sammy's life. You know… When Sammy was hurting, she cut herself. Maybe you'd feel better if you cut yourself." The shadow sneered.  
"Yeah…" It said. 

"Here, lemme help you. The first cut is always the hardest." It said, taking a razor and slicing Simon's arm open. Simon bit his lip to keep the cry of pain in. The shadow snickered.

"Not bad. Here. Now you try." Simon trembled as he held the blade up to his arm and drew it across, hissing in pain. This was supposed to be a dream. None of it was supposed to be real. He wasn't supposed to feel pain in his dreams.

Was this real life, or was this fantasy?

"God, now I'm quoting Queen." He rolled his eyes. Actually, it had hurt, but now that the pain was over, he felt a bit of a rush. He realized that his fear and guilt and sadness didn't hurt as much when he was hurting his body. He cut himself again, hearing the light hiss again from his mouth. This time he felt relieved though.

He was only dreaming, right? He did it again. After a few more, he stopped and his shadow let him rest in his own dreams. Even after his shadow technically let him rest, it flicked in and out of his dreams. He didn't sleep very well that night.

-0-

The next day, he woke up really tired. He needed to be rested because he needed to continue working on his painting of Sam. She deserved something special to prove how amazing she was to him. Art wasn't until later in the day. Last period. Maybe he could rest during lunch or recess or something. But whatever happened, he could at least rest during recess. He wanted to see Gil, but he also needed some rest. Even a 45 minute nap would help.

He went down to breakfast. He hated coffee, but he figured that a cup of it would help keep him up. He made a pot of Ethiopian coffee, knowing that it would have him wired for hours. He drank it black with his breakfast, already feeling the effects by the time he finished it.

"Simon? Sweetie? Why are you drinking coffee? It smells great by the way. What kind is it?" Amanda asked.

"Ethiopian. I didn't sleep well." Simon said, beginning to twitch slightly with the effects of the caffeine.

"Simon… You can't just dope yourself to keep yourself up. You'll crash in a few hours and be worse off than you are now." Amanda said.

"Why don't you stay home for the day and try to relax?" 

"C-can't…" Simon said, his body tensing up.

"Have-have to finish m-my art project…" He said. Amanda sighed as Sam came down, pretending Simon wasn't even there, taking some toast and eggs and sausage that Simon made and eating it. She finished quickly and walked out without a word, heading to school.

"Mom? Does Sammy hate me?" Simon asked. Amanda shook her head.

"Of course she doesn't. She's just conflicted right now. She'll come around, sweetie. You want me to drive you to school?" The blonde woman asked. Simon shook his head.

"I'll be fine." He said.

"I need to walk off some of this energy anyways." He said, finishing up and walking to school. It was a beautiful day. The weather was starting to get a bit warmer. He still needed to wear long sleeves. But he was able to not wear a jacket. He sighed, feeling a little less tense as he walked into school and was immediately greeted by Gil, who hugged Simon tightly.

"Hey, Simon! How's it going! How was your night? What did you have for dinner?"  
"Terrible, even worse and I don't really remember." Simon said exhaustedly. He was too wired to sleep, but he was still exhausted.

"Gil… I don't mean to be rude. I like you. But I can't concentrate on this conversation right now." He said.

"I just drank a cup of coffee and I'm wired and exhausted at the same time." Simon said. Gil nodded.  
"Will I see you at recess?" He asked. Simon sighed, shrugging.

"I don't know. I might be able to take a nap during recess. I just hope I don't run into Oz or any of his cronies." Simon sighed.

"What is a conversation, what is exhausting and what is a cronie?" Gil asked.

"Conversation means a talk. Exhausting means it makes me tired. A crony is like a… friend. But not an equal." Simon said, trying to stay focused on the conversation.

"Okay." Gil said, smiling at Simon. He' never had a friend like Simon before. Actually, he wasn't sure if he'd ever had a friend before, other than his sister.

"Do you wanna come over to my place for dinner? Mommy and Daddy are making beef stew this Saturday." Gil said excitedly.

"I'd love to. When would you like me to come over?" Simon asked. Gil thought for a moment.

"Well… We always have dinner at 1800 hours exactly." Gil said.

"So maybe come at 1730 hours."

"Umm… What?" Simon asked.

"6 pm. Dinner is at 6 pm. Come over at 5:30 pm." Gil said. He never quite understood why nobody understood how he told time. He tried to talk about time the way everyone else did. But he always messed up. He always talked about it in military time because that was how his father told time.

His father had been a corporal in the Army. He was excited to have Simon over for dinner. His mom's beef stew was the best in the world. He smiled brightly and checked his watch, hurrying to class before the first bell. Simon left as well, sighing, knowing it would be a long day. He would call Sam after every class, hoping that Sam would at least answer, even if she didn't forgive him. His first class was history. He sat down and waited. There was a test that day.

He hadn't studied, but he was pretty good at history. He sighed as Mr. Martin handed out the test and had everyone start. The test would take the entire period. He did the best he could on the test. It was regarding the Civil War, which he was very interested in. He went through the questions and answered the ones he knew for sure before going back and answering the ones he was pretty sure on. By then, he had finished the test and put it face down on the table and took a nap for a little while until Mr. Martin collected the tests.

Class was then over and Simon went out and called Sam. It rang twice before going to voice mail. She had rejected the call. He sighed and went to math class, feeling even worse now. But he was going to keep trying if it killed him. It was only the beginning of the day and already he was exhausted. The coffee was wearing off and he needed sleep. His fatigue was beginning to overcome his anxiety and guilt and force him to try harder to stay awake.

He sat down in Ms. Moon's class and watched as his teacher walked in. She smiled at the class and handed out a worksheet for them to fill out. He usually was pretty good at math, but today, nothing made much sense, and this worksheet was no exception. He tried to concentrate, but ended up zoning out until Ms. Moon came over to him.

"Simon, is everything alright today? You've been staring at your sheet for almost fifteen minutes." She said gently. He nodded, yawning widely.

"Why don't you go to the nurse and see if she can let you rest for a little while? I'll write down the homework for you and you can come back to class well rested tomorrow." She said.

He nodded and packed up, heading to the nurse and being given a bed to rest on for a bit. He passed out and slept until the nurse woke him up for his next class. He called Sam again in the hallway. It went right to voicemail this time. She had turned off her phone, most likely to send him a message that she didn't want to talk to him. He sighed and went to a private place and left a message.

"Sammy? It's Simon… I just want to tell you how sorry I am for betraying you and I know I don't deserve t-to be forgiven, but I hope that you'll at least let me talk to you when we get home so I can try to make it up to you. Please give me the chance t-to make it up to you." Simon begged, saying that he loved her one last time and hanging up, going to English Class, where he sat in the back, hoping to not be noticed. He liked his English teacher, Ms. Mendis.

She was really cool and made class fun. Plus English was always one of his best subjects. He sighed. He was still a little bit tired, but feeling a bit better after the 20 minute power nap he had taken. He knew he would probably need another nap at recess. But for now, he was a little more alert as Ms. Mendis started handing out a book called Frindle, by Andrew Clements. The class was told that they should read a chapter a night, including Saturday and Sunday. They would have a test on it in two weeks.

They were going to read the first chapter as a class that day. She had students take turns reading.

"So who wants to go first? Read the first page. First page is front and back." Ms. Mendis said. A boy named Jerry Manheim in the third row raised his hand, and started reading when he got the go ahead. He read pretty quickly and was told to slow down a bit. He finished the first page and Emily Baker went next. She read much slower and seemed to have a bit of trouble with big words.

The class went on like that and finally, the chapter ended and she gave them an assignment for the night about Chapter 1 and told them to also read chapter 2. Simon sighed and went to gym. He wasn't ready for the physical activity, knowing that it would probably be Dodgeball again. They had to run four laps around the gym and then choose teams for Dodgeball. Simon was chosen by Hattie again to be on her team. He had shown promise in the game, so it was no surprise.

He was hardly the best athlete in class. But he was good and that made him desirable in gym. He played the best he could, but found that his fatigue was giving him slow reactions and he dodged the first few balls, but got hit right in the face, giving him a nosebleed. Pakowski wasn't going to let him go to the nurse. He would normally just tell them to pinch their nose and walk it off. But he had gotten in trouble for that policy before and sent him to the nurse.

Ms. Aarons smiled as he walked in.

"Well hello, Mr. Sharp. Here for another nap?" She asked teasingly. He shook his head.

"Got hit in the face in gym class. Dodgeball." He yawned. She nodded and gave him a tissue and told him to sit down and tilt his head back to slow the bleeding. He sighed and obeyed, sitting for about ten minutes before the bleeding stopped.

Ms. Aarons smiled.

"You're a fast healer. You can go back to gym class if you want or rest here for a bit." She said. He sighed and laid back, resting his eyes. Before he knew it, he was asleep and being woken up by the nurse for his next class. He called Sam again and again, he got no answer. Just an immediate answering machine. He sighed and left a brief message, asking her once more to give him another chance.

He knew he didn't deserve another chance. But he wanted to try. He grabbed his lunch and went to the lunchroom and sat down with a different crowd that day. He had seen the white haired boy before and wondered about his hair. Had he had light blonde hair and just bleached it? Or was it naturally white? And if it was naturally white, how? It was odd, but worked surprisingly well for him, and he seemed to have a wide circle of friends.

A light brown haired girl who seemed even more social than the white haired boy, an African American boy, a red haired boy with freckles, a red haired boy with glasses and a red, curly haired boy with pockmarks on his face.

"Hey… Do you mind if I sit here?" Simon asked tiredly, feeling a little bit shy about these new people. The white haired boy nodded and Simon sat down, taking out his lunch and eating.

"So, I saw you once in the hallway. What's your name?" The white haired boy asked.

"I'm Simon. What's your name? I feel like my big sister told me about a white haired boy."

"I'm Lincoln. Is your sister Sam Sharp by any chance?" He asked. Simon nodded.

"Yeah… We just moved her recently. How did you get your white hair?" Simon asked, not really worrying about tact or offending anyone.

"I was born with it as far as I know. My Pop Pop has white hair just like mine. So maybe it just skipped my mom and I got it instead. Do you like Ace Savvy?" Lincoln asked. Simon nodded.

"He's okay. I'm more of a Superman and Wolverine fan. But Ace Savvy is good. Do you play Magic the Gathering?" Simon asked. Lincoln nodded excitedly.

"I have like five different decks. Green Elves, Red Goblins, Black Discard and Direct Damage, and Blue Counter. What about you?" Lincoln asked, showing genuine interest in Simon. Sam had spoken well of him when they met and seemed to really care about him. So Lincoln figured that Simon must be pretty cool. Simon sighed.

"I have Green and Black Elves, Red and Black Goblins and Blue Wizards." Simon said.

"I'm not really that good yet, but Adalwin says I'm getting better. I'm also into paintball and airsoft. Do you like those?" Simon asked Lincoln and Clyde.

"Well, I play both sometimes with my big sister, Lynn…"

"My name is Clyde. I'm not really into those. My dads say I could get hurt playing games like that. I wouldn't want that." Clyde said. Simon raised an eyebrow.

"Dads?" He asked, sounding surprisingly hopeful.

"Yeah… I have two dads. They're married. Pretty cool, right?" Clyde asked. Simon nodded.

"So… Gay people are… Accepted here?" Simon asked, thinking of Sam.

Clyde looked at Lincoln and shrugged.

"I'm not sure. But my Dads have never said that anyone treats them bad. So I guess so. Why do you ask?" Clyde asked. Simon sighed. He couldn't betray Sam again by ratting on her to these kids he just met. They seemed nice, but he didn't know that for sure. Given that Clyde had two fathers, it was highly likely that he would be cool about it. But he couldn't risk it.

"No reason." Simon said after a long pause.

"So, what's you guys' names?" Simon asked.  
"Well I'm Jordan. But people call me Girl Jordan because there are two Jordans in our class. One boy and one girl." Girl Jordan said.

"I'm Liam. I have a cousin in the grade below me. I ain't sure, but she told me about a blonde boy like you in her gym class. She said he was really good at dodgeball." Liam said. Simon chuckled. Hattie.

"I'm Zach. And be careful of Mr. Sorentino. I think he might be an alien." Zach whispered. Simon was tempted to laugh, but knew that Zach probably wasn't joking.

"I'm Rusty. I have a little brother too, but he's only in first grade. He's actually the same age as Lincoln's little sister, Lucy." Rusty said.

"It's-it's good to meet you guys." Simon said. They ate their lunches together and talked throughout the period until the bell rang and Lincoln and his friends went to recess and Simon went to get a little more rest for 45 minutes before heading to his next class.

Unfortunately, he was waylaid by Oz and his cronies on the way. The leader, Oz stepped in front of him.

"Hey, Simon. You give any more thought to my offer?" Oz asked. Simon sighed and shook his head.

"I don't need to give it more thought. The answer was no before and the answer is no now. What was the offer again?" Simon asked. Oz chuckled.

"You've got guts. Work for me. You're pretty tough and smarter than any of these guys." Oz said.

"You could have it made at this school, especially if you drop that loser freak." Oz said. Simon yawned widely.

"Look. I'm tired. I didn't sleep well last night and I'm not really in the mood for your bullshit right now. Oz is my friend and he's not a loser or a freak." Simon said.

"Let me go get some rest before my next class. You can bug me about this tomorrow if you have to." Simon said.

He walked past Oz and his lackeys and went to the nurse to rest for as long as he could, which by his clock was about 35 minutes. The nurse made sure it was a free period for him and he laid down and slept until the bell rang and he had to go to his next class. He called Sam again, prepared to leave a short message, but she actually picked up this time.

"Fine, Simon. You have two minutes. I'm not in the mood for you and I'm at lunch right now." Sam said.

"Alright… I'm sorry I ratted you out to Mom and Dad. I didn't mean to. Mom made me feel bad about keeping it a secret and she said she could help you, but she needed to know what was wrong. I just wanted to help you because I love you, Sammy and I want you to feel better and be the happy, nice, cool, amazing Sammy I've always known.

"I love you and you're still amazing and strong and cool, but I know you're not happy and I want to try to help you fix that. Please, let me in. Please, give me another chance to prove that I didn't tell them because I don't love you. I do and I want things to get better for you…"

"You mean you want things to get better for you, Simon. I'm sorry you're so upset, but you betrayed me.

"I asked you to do one thing. I asked you to keep my secret for me and you didn't. Mom's partly to blame too for manipulating you like that. I just thought maybe you were a bit stronger than that, to let yourself be manipulated by her. So whatever. I guess I was wrong. I gotta go. I need to eat lunch before the period ends. Bye." Sam said coolly. She hung up and Simon sighed, not really feeling like class right now, but knowing that he couldn't get out of it.

Or could he? He went to the library, checking in under the name Jacob Anderson and sat down in the back, hoping that he wouldn't be caught. He sighed and just read a book to pass the time. Another boy sat down at his table with him.

"Hey, I don't think I've seen you here before." The boy said. He was tan skinned and had jet black hair and a light accent.

"No. I'm usually not here this period." Simon said.

"What class is this for you?" The tan boy asked.

"Don't ask questions you don't need the answers to." Simon said, going back to his book, not really interested in talking. The rest of Science, he just spent on reading the book. It wasn't that interesting, but it kept him engaged and he finally put it down as the bell that ended class rang.

He went to art class next. This was what he was anticipating. He grabbed his canvas. The painting was close to done and this was easily his best work ever. He'd taken all week to do it and today, he was hoping to finish it. He slowly observed the painting, trying to decide where to start. He looked at it for over ten minutes before doing a few brush strokes and trying to do some shading. He was still a beginner in painting in his own mind. Drawing was his best type of art, although he was good at writing too.

He was really good with colored pencils. He had a deluxe colored pencil kit of 150 pencils of different colors. He had a paint set of 250 different acrylic paints at home. But he didn't use that one as much. He was still not as good at painting as he was at coloring, which he felt he had more control in when it came to the shading and drawing in general.

He focused as well as he could on the painting, setting everything up to show Sam in her best light, her long hair glowing, having been painted golden. He had brought his paint set from home, wanting everything to be perfect. When he was finished, he stood back and admired his work and then raised his hand. Ms. Sloane came over and gasped in delight at the painting she was seeing.

"Simon! This is beautiful! I knew you were quite the artist when I saw your initial drawing, but the way the colors leap off the canvas, the love and admiration I feel for your sister when I see this painting is just incredible!" She said.

"Thank you, Ma'am. I'm gonna let it dry overnight. Can I take it home tomorrow?" Simon asked. She thought for a moment and nodded.

"Of course. I hope you'll allow us to show this in the art show we have at the end of the year." She said. Simon sighed and smiled, trying to be agreeable, but not really wanting people to see it.

"I'll think about it." He said as the bell rang. She thanked him for considering and let him leave for the day. Tomorrow was Friday, so he would be able to have the weekend to himself and hopefully be able to reconcile with Sam.

He sighed and went home, walking slowly. He was eager to see Sam. But in another way, he just hoped that he didn't see her. He was scared to face her. He knew she hated him. It wasn't fair. He had just tried to help her. He could feel his resentment for her growing.

_I told you she wouldn't forgive you. How could she? _Came a cruel, mocking tone from behind him. He looked around and saw nothing. But he could hear it. His shadow.

"No. You're just a dream. You're not real!" Simon growled, sounding scared.

_Is that so? Then how am I here, jackass?_ It asked coldly. Simon turned around and tried to ignore it. But it kept just talking in his ear, getting louder and louder. He was sure that Amanda would give some medical answer, like he was just upset and his fear was becoming this shadow. Simon knew it was real though. He would still talk to his mother. But he was sure she couldn't help him.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten: A New Development

As he walked into the house, Sam was lying on the couch, trembling violently. Both his parents were already home and Amanda was making tea. Erik was kind of freaking out. He sighed, shaking his head. Stupid bitch… She had a panic attack again. There was a brown haired girl sitting there with her, stroking her hair, doing her best to calm her down. Whoever this girl was, she seemed kind and she was absolutely beautiful. She had some zits like Sam did sometimes.

She cooed lightly to Sam, singing a song that seemed to be having a good effect on her. He recognized it as Rainbow Connection by Kermit the Frog. He chuckled at this. She was so hip looking and seemed like a total rocker. But she was singing a song from the Muppets.  
"H-hey…" Simon said. The brown haired girl looked up and smiled cheerfully.

"Hey! You must be Simon! You're Sammy… I mean, Sam's brother, Simon. Right?" The girl asked. Simon nodded, still skeptical.

"And… Are you Ruth or Luna?" He asked. The girl grinned.

"Luna! Sam told you about us, eh?" She asked. Simon nodded.

"She told us a little bit. She said you invited her to join your band and that you play a bunch of instruments. Do you play flute?" Simon asked curiously. Luna chuckled.

"No. I don't. I'm better at stringed instruments. But I do play a lil' bit of trumpet. I'm not great at it. I mostly do rock instruments.

"I can play guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, xylophone. But could you go and see if Mrs. Sharp is ready with that tea?" Luna asked. Simon nodded and went to see his mom, who poured the green tea and walked out with the tray, setting the cups down before them.

"I made some for you as well, Luna." Amanda said kindly. Luna smiled.

"Thanks. Mrs. Sharp. This house is awesome." Luna said, taking a sip of her tea.

"This is delicious." Luna said.

"Is that a mint leaf in here?" Luna asked. Amanda nodded. Sam seemed to perk up slightly as the evening went on. Amanda had suggested that Sam stay home the next day to rest. Sam could tell that her parents weren't treating her any different than they used to. It just felt different. Things were different. Whether her parents were treating her well or not, she couldn't trust Simon.

That had always been something she'd taken for granted. That she could trust Simon without reservation. But now she didn't know. She sighed, looking away from her younger brother, causing the young man to whimper lightly. Luna excused herself for a moment and went outside with Simon, sitting down next to him.

"Everything hangin' well dude?" She asked. He shook his head.

"I did something really bad and hurt Sammy and now she hates me." He said helplessly, finding that he trusted Luna right away. He could see why Sam liked her. He could see why Sam loved spending time with her. He wouldn't blame Sammy for falling in love with Luna. The brown haired rocker was incredible.

"That must be rough. I have a brother about your age. I really love him and I would be really upset if he got angry at me." Luna said gently.

"I painted a picture of her in school to apologize." Simon said. Luna's eyes lit up.

"You're an artist! That's awesome! Lemme see!" She said. Simon took out his phone and showed her the photograph of his painting. Luna grinned brightly.

"Dude! This is rad! Sammy told me you were good at art, but I had no idea you were so amazing!"  
"She-she said that about me?" Simon whimpered nervously. Luna nodded.

"She talks about you all the time! How sweet you are and how cool, how handsome and kind you are. She tells me all about how close you two were and that she's afraid that she's losing you." Luna said. Forgetting that Sam had asked her not to repeat what she said to anyone. Especially Simon.

She was just a little embarrassed that she had been so mean to Simon. But she still loved him. He was like a son to her. He would always be her best friend and her staunchest ally. He would always be the person she loved the most, even if they didn't get along. She hated that she was being so mean to him. But she was just afraid that she would drag him down with her. She was afraid she was too dirty and messed up for him and she didn't want to hurt him.

She had talked to Luna and the rest of the band a lot about him and his and her relationship. How she had practically raised him. She didn't know why she trusted Luna so implicitly. But there was something in her voice, her smile, her eyes that instantly drew Sam to her. Sam knew that Luna could easily lead entire nations with her easy charisma and passion. Sam admired that Luna's dream was to be a rock star though.

"She-she said that about me?" Simon repeated. Luna nodded, hugging Simon. He pushed her off of him though and ran inside, hugging Sam tightly.  
"I love you too, Sammy." He whispered adoringly, sitting in her lap like he did when he was a little kid, hugging her and just resting his head on her chest, listening to her heartbeat.

Sam tried to keep herself cold. She knew she was still supposed to be angry at him. She just couldn't be. She just worried. What about the next time she got angry? What about the next time she started panicking and she hurt him again? Would that next time be the last time? Would that be the time that broke his heart for good and made him hate her?

She just wanted to get it over with so he could heal and she wouldn't have to see that look in his eyes every time she broke his heart and every time she hugged him and begged him not to leave her. She didn't want to keep breaking his heart. She couldn't keep hurting him. She had no right. She had to either be there for him or just turn her back on him for good. Amanda seemed to sense this in Sam, because she looked at Erik.

Erik took Simon aside while Amanda took Sam. They went to opposite ends of the house and sat with their son and daughter respectively.  
"Sammy… Nobody expects you to recover right away. What happened to you was horrible. I know it's hard to trust people now, right?" Amanda asked. Sam nodded helplessly.

"Simon… I made Simon tell me about what you were hiding. But I understand why you're hurt that he did. And if you need a little distance from him for right now, I understand that, and Erik is talking to him right now as well. I know this will all get sorted out in time and I know it hurts right now. But Erik and I are here, and Simon is here for you.

"And I can tell you and Luna have become good friends. I'm glad you have friends at school to help you when you need help. I love you, Sammy. Nothing can change that and I'll always be here for you whenever you need help. I promise you. I'm sorry I wasn't here for you from the start. But I want all that to change." Amanda said. Sam nodded, hugging her mother and smiling as she kissed Sam on the cheek.

"Son… You know Sammy is having… A bit of trouble right now. It's not your fault. None of this is your fault. I can tell that you've had some trouble lately as well. I know you've made a friend at school and that's great. But I know you also miss Sammy being your friend. Right now she's…" Erik knew how smart Simon was. But he didn't want to overestimate Simon's knowledge of technical subjects and overwhelm him.

"Do you know what PTSD is?" Erik asked. Simon shook his head.

"After something bad happens to someone. A lot of soldiers have PTSD. It means Post Traumatic Stress Disorder." He said, saying the name of the condition slowly for Simon's benefit.

"And it means that an event or series of events has caused the person to be always on guard for bad things to happen.

"In soldiers, a loud sound can trigger an attack and cause them to panic. In Sammy… Well, the fact that she's been beaten… And that night in the alleyway have given her something similar to that. And she's still having trouble getting by. That's why Luna brought her home today. Sammy had a panic attack and she's still really fragile after it. So if she seems cold sometimes, it isn't because she doesn't love you." Erik said gently, trying to keep it fairly straightforward for him.

Simon nodded. He didn't completely get it. But he got the general idea and understood most of what it meant.

"Does that mean Sammy isn't angry at me?" Simon asked. Erik sighed.

"I don't know. It means that she doesn't not love you anymore. She still loves you. She's just having trouble in her own life and… Projecting it outward…" Erik said, trying to remember how Amanda had worded it.

They had spoken. Amanda seemed to know that they would need to talk to Sam and Simon soon and what the topic would probably be. She wanted to prepare Erik for that conversation, since she knew he wasn't dumb, but that his skill in psychology and academics in general was limited. He was more talented physically. He was getting back into shape, going to the gym almost every day, walking around the neighborhood, changing his diet and doing core exercises at home.

He wanted to be in the same shape he was when he initially got his knee injury. He had been out of it for years. But he was determined to get back into it, and he was still above average strength and endurance. He had run Sam all the way to the hospital. And Amanda believed that if he got back in shape, his knee would hurt less because it would have less strain on it.

He was seeing a doctor for his knee, who said that his knee was looking better, but that he should take it easy for the time. Focus on his upper body more than lower and limit the amount of weight he lifted with his legs. Erik didn't know why his mind had wandered to his exercise regimen. But it had and he brought it back to Simon, hugging him tightly.

"Simon… It's gonna be alright. Your mother and I are making sure Sam goes to all her therapy appointments. She has two a week. Doctor Lopez seems to have connected well with Sam." Erik said.

"Until then, I don't want you to think we're ignoring you. So what do you want to do this Saturday? I'll go with you." Erik said. Simon sighed.  
"I just want to spend my weekends with Sammy like I used to." He said.

Erik smiled sadly.

"I know. And if you can. That's great. But don't get your hopes up too high." Erik said, trying to be delicate. Simon scowled.  
"I know she'll want to! Luna told me that Sammy still talks about me all the time! She said Sammy still loves me and just doesn't want to hurt me!" Simon said.

Erik smiled, hoping that Simon was right. He knew Sam still loved Simon. But he didn't want to see him hurt again. He knew Luna had meant well. But maybe it wasn't for the best. Maybe Luna should have just stayed quiet about that particular conversation between her and Sam. He excused himself and sat with Luna.

"Luna… I need to talk to you." Erik said calmly.

"I know you meant well with what you told Simon… About what Sam said to you about him. But maybe it would have been better to just let them work things out on their own. You got Simon's hopes way up, and now he wants to spend the whole weekend with Sammy. And if Sammy isn't up for that this weekend, I can tell Simon will be really hurt.

"I know that wasn't what you meant to put in motion. But I would appreciate it if you would be a bit more discreet in the future with what Sam says to you. Whether it's about Simon or not." Erik said. Luna nodded.  
"I'm sorry, Mr. Sharp. I was just trying to make Simon feel better. He was really upset and I thought that knowing that Sam still loved him would make him feel better." Luna said. Erik nodded.

"Please. Call me Erik." He said.  
"And he does feel better. But I don't want him to get his hopes up that everything will be rosy from now on. He already is convinced that he'll be able to spend the whole weekend with Sam, and that might just not be practical." He said. He wouldn't specify what had happened to Sam, and Luna got the impression that she shouldn't ask. She would let Sam tell her in her own time.

Luna was curious. But she respected Sam's privacy too. She went out to sit with Sam, who was sitting on the couch, already being pestered by Simon to hang out with her on the weekend. Luna sighed, tapping Simon on the shoulder.  
"Listen, Simon… Can you give Sam and I some time to talk?" Luna asked. Simon nodded, smiling knowing that Luna was good for Sam.

"Sammy… I'm sorry. Simon's… Excitement is my fault. I told him what you said about him. I'm sorry. He was just so upset that I wanted to make him feel better. I didn't realize it would cause trouble for you." Luna said. Sam sighed, seeming disappointed briefly. But it seemed to disappear just as quickly.

"I understand. Luna, I appreciate that you want to help Simon. But in the future, if I ask you not to tell anyone what I said, don't tell anyone what I said." Sam said, still seeming annoyed.

Luna nodded.

"Will you still come to the Music Club tomorrow?" Luna asked hopefully, already being really drawn to Sam. She didn't know what it was about Sam. But Luna was inexplicably drawn to her. She wanted to be friends with Sam. She already felt close to her. And she could tell, despite Sam trying to keep her distance that the blonde felt the same way.

"I will. You should probably get home for the night though, Luna. I'll be fine. I need to eat dinner and you probably do too and start getting our homework done and everything." Sam said. Luna nodded, hugging Sam and getting her shoes on. She thanked Amanda for the tea and then headed back to her place. She walked into the house, smiling as she went upstairs to do her homework before dinner.

She wasn't super into homework or school. But she knew that her parents wouldn't let her stay in the music club if she wasn't doing well enough in school. So she did about half an hour of homework, working on the Pi Song. She had already made it to 80 digits and she had only been working on it for a week about. So she was pretty sure that she would do well on the test. She was also studying the regular math work and keeping up with her studies.

She did about half an hour of the Pi Song before she had to go down to dinner and let it all sink in. She talked with Lincoln and the others about their days and about what they were working on in Music Club. Ruthie, Georgie and Sammy and her were all working on the Pi Song together. So in a way, they were using their music club time to work on homework. She was sure they would all ace their test.

Rita asked if she was still doing her other homework, reminding her that if she didn't keep her grades at at least an 85, she wouldn't be allowed to stay in Music Club. Luna nodded.

"What's goin' on in your school, Linc?" Luna asked.

"Well… There's a new kid at our lunch table. A kid named Simon. He's Sam's brother. He's really cool. A little shy, but cool." Lincoln said.

"What about you, Lynn?" Lincoln asked.

"I'm doing really well in soccer, track, biking, swimming and basketball." Lynn said cheerfully.

"There are a few kids who are jealous. But they'll get over it. I'm going into middle school next year anyway. Maybe there are other kids who are as good as me at sports. I just wish I was a bit better at school. Maybe then I'd have more time for sports cuz homework wouldn't take so long." Lynn laughed.

The rest of the table laughed as well, except for Lisa, who was in her high chair and still cooing lightly, not quite making words. Rita and Lynn were going to take her to see a specialist the next day. Lynn was taking the day off of work to see someone who could pinpoint what was causing Lisa to not talk. She hadn't even said any words, much less the 200 that experts said most two year olds could say. She was undoubtedly intelligent. She played with blocks and made impressive structures.

Lola, their four year old got jealous or angry sometimes when she saw Lynn and Rita praising Lisa's newest structure and kicked the structure, knocking it over. Lisa never even reacted though. She just glared for a moment or two at Lola and began building again. Sometimes Lisa read books. But they were far more advanced than normal for a 2 year old. She seemed to absorb them pretty well. At one point, she was reading fourth to fifth grade books.

Now she was deep into high school books. And Rita was pretty sure she wasn't just looking at the pictures or acting like she was reading them.

"How was your day, Lola?" Rita asked. Lola smiled brightly. Lola was a real show off. She wasn't especially advanced intellectually. But socially, she was the top dog so to speak in their kindergarten class. She had some kids scared and some kids charmed.

Either way, she was in charge a lot of the time. She was busy with child pageants and loved wearing dresses and crowns. The fancier they were, the more Lola loved them. Lana had been like Lola for a while. When they were three, they both were in small pageants. They said they wanted to be in one together. But now, Lana was discovering a love of frogs and other amphibians and snakes and such and spent more time in the water, mud and even garbage.

That was pretty typical for a four year old. So Rita and Lynn were waiting to see where it went for her.

"How is school going for you, Lucy?" Lincoln asked. Lucy sighed loudly.

"Sigh. Nobody liked my poem in English class. They say it's weird and creepy to talk about death." The six year old said.

Lincoln smiled ruefully.

"Well, don't listen to them. Just because they can't appreciate your work doesn't mean it's not good." Luan said.

"I take some hecklers sometimes with my work too. That doesn't mean that your work is bad or that you shouldn't keep doing it. Just that some people won't appreciate what you do." Luan said.

Luan had always had some trouble with anxiety, so she understood Lucy better than most of the family did. Luan channeled her anxiety through performance and especially comedy so that when people laughed, she knew they were laughing at her jokes, or if nothing else, she could tell herself they were. Lucy was still finding herself in that regard.

She had channeled her anxiety through dark poetry and stories and love of pagan rites and dark magic, which she was getting into now that she knew there was a shop near their house. She went and talked to the witch who ran the shop. It wasn't a pejorative term. She self-identified as a witch, someone who practiced Witchcraft, and she had sort of taken Lucy under her wing, teaching her some minor spells and just about the lifestyle in general. With her parents' permission of course.

"And you, Luan? How was your day?" Rita asked.

"Oh, it was alright. There was a test in geometry that I don't think I did that well on. But other than that, it was a cute day." Luan said, stressing the last words. Lynn Sr. chuckled.

"Good one, Lu." He said.

"I always know the right angle! Ahahahahaha! Get it?" She asked.

Most of the siblings groaned good naturedly, rolling their eyes at her puns.

"Aw, everybody's a critic." Luan said dismissively. Luna talked about Sam and how they were getting pretty close. They were having fun writing songs together with the band in Music Club and their work on the Pi song was going well.

Leni still was having a lot of trouble in school, especially now that she was in high school. They had started reading Romeo and Juliet. And she had a bit of trouble following books in 'today speak' as Leni called it. Reading old-timey books like Dickens and Shakespeare just made her head hurt even more. She seemed really upset. Lynn Sr. smiled sympathetically.

"I had trouble with Shakespeare too, sweetie. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Maybe your mom and I can help you keep up with it." He said.

"How 'bout you, Lori?" Lynn Sr. asked.

"Today was literally pretty good. There's this boy named Justin in my gym class that I think likes me. He's kinda cute. But Bobby is just so sweet and cool." Lori said. Rita thought for a minute.

"Bobby… Santiago?" Rita asked.

"Yeah… How'd you know?"  
"Oh, well he and his sister see the dentist at my office." Rita said. She didn't think it was too serious a breach of confidentiality since a lot of people in Royal Woods saw one of the dentists in Doctor Feinstein's office.

"Bobby has a sister?" Lori asked.

"Yeah. Sure she does." Rita said. She couldn't say anything more specific about them since she was pushing her luck as it was. But they both were patients of Doctor Feinstein. They were both actually pretty fastidious about cleaning their teeth.

Ronnie Anne was a bit of a rough kid, but she took good care of her mouth. Bobby was sensitive to pain, so sometimes they needed to numb him a bit with a topical anesthetic to work on him. But they were both good kids, and Rita got along well with Maria, since they both worked in the medical field and their kids were so close in age. Both mothers hoped Lincoln would make friends with Ronnie Anne when they met.

Dinner wound down and the kids went back upstairs to finish up their homework and start getting ready for bed. Luna continued working on the Pi Song, having gotten a bit further in just the half hour that she'd been practicing at home. She was up to 90 digits now, and she was hoping that she would get as far as Mr. Ryan had in memorizing it. She played what she knew so far from memory, and smiled, finishing up the rest of her homework and brushing her teeth before doing a bit of work on some other music she was writing and getting ready for bed.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven: A New Focus

Sam sighed, waking up. She wanted to try something different today. She woke up early to get it done. She went to the bathroom and locked herself in, taking out some blue hair dye and putting it in her hair, following the instructions that she'd read the night before. She let it sit for ten minutes and then got in the shower, washing out the extra. Her scalp was burning slightly from the chemicals. She scratched her head as she went down for breakfast.

She was starting to eat normally again, and Amanda and Erik noticed she was exercising a lot. She went out running almost every day now. She'd started shortly after she'd moved to Royal Woods. Initially, she wanted to get in better shape. Then she realized how good it felt to exercise. She had also started to play sports, which she hadn't really done much before. She wasn't really dancing anymore. She wanted to change who she was as much as possible. She went down to the kitchen and started making breakfast.

It wasn't so much that she was hungry. She just was changing her focus. She still wasn't hungry most of the time, but she ate so that she would have the energy to exercise. Erik and Amanda were still concerned though. She was obsessively controlling the amount she ate. She would use measuring cups to decide how much she ate. She would carefully measure before even putting it on her plate and then sometimes take it off and remeasure it. Simon was confused by Sam's strange, ritualistic activity before eating.

She worked out hard too. She woke up at 5 am exactly and had a cup of tea. She went out to run and spent half an hour on the run. She came home and ate the same breakfast every day. A bowl of cereal with fruit, an English Muffin with jelly and a hardboiled egg. She then went to school. On the bright side, she had begun talking to Simon again, though some days she was still surprisingly cold towards him. Simon never knew which days those would be. He tried to keep what Erik had said in mind. It wasn't her fault.

She didn't mean to. He knew she didn't. He knew she still loved him. She came home late most days. She went to the music club after school to start with and worked on music with them. She only stayed for about half an hour before she left. She didn't tell them what she was doing. She didn't see the need. She was working out in the gymnasium weight room. She often shared that time with various sports teams, but she was. She'd only been working out for a few days. But she was starting to have more energy.

Her schedule was rigidly controlled. She didn't want to let a single minute be unplanned. And although it was difficult to keep on schedule sometimes, she felt like she was finally starting to get some measure of control back in her life. Simon, meanwhile was still trying to build himself up to giving her the painting. He'd finished it and had brought it home, keeping it hidden in his room until he had the courage to give it to her. He was hoping to give it to her this weekend when he hung out with her.

During the day, he planned to hang out with Sam. On Saturday night, he was visiting Gil and his family for dinner. He was looking forward to Saturday… Or rather, to his night with his new friend's family. He sighed. Today had to be the day. He had to give Sam the painting. He wasn't sure how she would like it. But he had to give it to her. He'd worked for over a week on it and now, it was finished and he could show Sam how much he loved her. School had to come first though.

As Simon came downstairs, he gasped when he saw Sam's teal blue head. He stared for a long moment, leaving Sam feeling a bit uncomfortable. She looked away from him. She wasn't really that angry at him anymore for outing her. In fact, she and her family had settled into a pretty good thing. She had found that they didn't think less of her because she was gay. Her father was obviously unsure about how he felt about it. But he also made it clear that he didn't love her any less.

She remembered two days after she'd been forced to come out of the closet. She sat with Erik, rubbing her arm nervously. She had noticed that he was uncomfortable around her. She looked at him finally.

-0-

"_Dad… Do you hate me?" She asked nervously. He was silent for a long time. She took that as a sign that he did. "I'm sorry, Dad! I didn't mean to be gay! I can't help it!" She pleaded._

_Erik shook his head._

"_Sweetie… I don't hate you. I was… I was born in a time when people weren't exactly accepted for who they were. I could never hate you. You're my baby girl. But I wasn't raised in an environment that accepted gay people. My parents were strongly Conservative and religious. They were hardly religious loonies or anything. But they were fairly Conservative Christian and were fairly vocal about it. They believed being gay was a sin and they… Imparted that on us._

"_So… You-you think I'm a sinner?" Sam asked, terrified now. Erik shook his head._

"_I've come to realize that not everything my parents taught me is true. Just because I believe in God doesn't mean I believe He would want me to reject my daughter for who she is." Erik said._

"_Then why are you so uncomfortable around me?" Sam demanded tearfully. Erik sighed._

"_Because I'm not sure how to react. I don't know what to do. How can I be a good father to you when I know nothing about what being gay means for you? I don't know enough about your kind of peop… Sorry… That was… Insensitive… I didn't mean to say it like that." Erik said nervously.  
"Sammy… Look at me. I love you. Nothing will ever be able to change that. But I hope you'll give me a little leeway while I get used to you being gay and learn more about what that means?_

"_Can you give me a chance to do that for you?" Erik asked. Sam nodded, hugging Erik tightly._

-0-

Amanda had been very supportive. She said that her family was Irish Catholic. Her parents didn't exactly approve of gay marriage. They did believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman. But they also tended to accept that a gay couple should be allowed to be together. Amanda's siblings were pretty accepting of same-sex marriage. None of them were gay as far as Amanda knew, though she had a male cousin who never seemed that interested in women.

He never came out and said it, but she had a feeling he was gay. Amanda had told Sam that whether she was attracted to boys, girls or boys and girls, she would never stop loving her. She had called her sisters, Wendy and Elaine. They were the two who lived closest to her. Wendy lived in New York with her husband, Eugene and three kids, while Elaine lived in Minnesota with her husband, Daniel and two kids. They were going to bring their families over to Royal Woods to visit over the weekend.

Erik had called Lars, who lived in Colorado and Elisabeth who lived in California. Both had families, but lived too far away to easily come visit. They were going to try to visit for Thanksgiving. As Sam had come down for breakfast, Simon had gasped, seeing that his Sammy's hair was bright blue rather than the beautiful shade of blonde it usually was. He couldn't believe she had changed her hair like that.

"Sammy? Why did you dye your hair?" He asked, seeming distressed that Sam had changed herself so much. Her beautiful long hair, her bright, charming, loving personality, her smile and now her blonde hair… She'd changed it all and he wasn't liking the change. Sam sighed and smiled weakly at Simon as they walked together. They would split up at some point. Sam would go to the middle school and Simon would go to the elementary school. But for now, they could walk together.

Sam looked at Simon, saying that she had just wanted a change. She wanted to try dyeing her hair blue.

"Why?" Simon asked. He'd always thought her hair was so beautiful just as it was.

"Well… It's not hurting anyone. If I don't like it, I can just grow my hair back out. And if I do like it, hey. I've already done it." Sam said as they got to the high school. She kissed him lightly on the forehead and headed into the building, seeing Luna waiting for her. Sam gasped. Luna had dyed her hair purple.

Luna laughed, looking at Sam's hair.

"Wow! Your hair looks great, dude!" Luna grinned. Luna had gotten her hair cut. Leni had done it the previous night. Luna had been wanting to get her hair cut for a while. It had gotten pretty shaggy, and she was going for a pixie cut these days. Luna promised she'd help Leni write a song for her and her boyfriend's one month anniversary in exchange. Luna didn't like Leni's boyfriend. He was kind of a jerk. But she figured Leni would figure that out eventually.

"Your hair looks great, Sam." Luna said, high fiving the now blue haired girl. They had Ms. DiMartino in their history class again that day. Luna had been struggling with feelings for her. She'd had Ms. D only since yesterday. She had heard that Ms. D would be there for a while. They weren't sure how long Ms. Karim would be out. She'd heard that it could be as long as a few weeks. She liked Ms. Karim. Ms. K was pretty awesome and loved her subject of history. But Ms. D was… Okay fine. She was fucking hot.

Sam had Ms. DiMartino too. They had her in different periods, but they had the same teacher. Sam found Ms. DiMartino to be quite attractive as well. Today was their math test. Last day of the week. Friday. They had the weekend coming up, and Sam had heard Amanda talking about Simon's friends coming over on the weekend. She was happy that they were keeping in touch. She hoped the group had a good time hanging out in the new town.

"Luna… You look good with your hair t-too…" Sam said nervously, smiling a bit, or at least trying to. It came off more as a nervous grimace. Luna grinned. She knew Sam was a little bit shy. She would try to draw Sam out of her shell a bit more. She felt she had already done so, but there was still more to work on. Luna smiled and looked at the Latina woman walking past them.

"Ms. D is pretty awesome, isn't she?" Luna asked. Sam blushed slightly and nodded. Ms. DiMartino was pretty cool, and the boys seemed to go nuts over her.

She could tell that Luna was a bit crazy over Ms. DiMartino as well. The way Luna stared at her was a dead giveaway. Maybe she'd found a kindred spirit at this school. Someone who was gay like her and could understand how she felt and what had happened to her. But she wasn't 100% sure. She didn't want to tip her hand until she was sure that Luna would accept her and that moreover, she wouldn't be offended by Sam asking if she was gay. Luna gave her the opportunity to talk.

"So, Sam… Tell me a bit about your life in Columbus. Sam sighed. She wasn't sure she was ready to talk about it. She was still too scared about her secret. Sam looked away nervously.  
"There isn't really much to tell. My mom is a nurse. My dad was in construction. But he injured his knee and he couldn't do it anymore. But he went back to work once he got to Royal Woods and is a foreman now. My brother is really good at art, and is also pretty athletic." Sam said. Luna got the distinct image that wasn't all there was to it. She could tell that there was a lot more to Sam's life in Columbus.

She wasn't going to push Sam on it though. She knew Sam would talk when she was ready. And for now, she would just be a good friend to Sam.  
"Are ya gonna be at Music Club after school today?" Luna asked. Sam shook her head. Her parents wanted her to come home early so they could spend time together. Simon also wanted to talk to her. He had something to give her. He said he'd worked very hard on it and wanted her to have it.

They split up for first period. Luna went to English class with Mr. Anderson while Sam went to Ms. DiMartino for History. She had her a different period than Luna, though she was finding herself wanting to be around Luna more often. She knew that they'd barely gotten to know each other. But she really felt comfortable with Luna. Now if only she could be honest about her sexuality. She wanted to be honest with her new friends. But she was afraid they wouldn't accept her. She was afraid that beyond that, they would spread word of it and make her a pariah in Royal Woods as well.

If that happened, she wasn't sure she would ever be able to trust anyone again. She was sure Luna, George, Ruth and Finny wouldn't do that to her… But was she sure? She was sure that Saoirse would never hurt her too. Saoirse was the kindest, friendliest girl she'd ever known. But she'd done some research on Saoirse's actions. She was somewhere between a narcissist. She was charismatic, friendly, had a way with people and she was completely self-absorbed. And a sociopath. She had a shallow charm, but underneath it, she had no conscience.

She could murder someone as easily as she could shake someone's hand. In both cases, she was good at making people doubt their perceptions. Was Saoirse really evil? She had said that her father was a monster too. Maybe she was just following his example. Maybe she could still change. But she was thirteen now. Maybe fourteen. If she hadn't changed already, it was unlikely that anything would by now. Whatever the cause of her behavior, she was a monster and there wasn't really any changing that.

She had no doubt played on Sam's trusting nature to make her believe her story about her father. It was over now though. She was out of Saoirse's grip. She wouldn't be bothered by her anymore.

"Saoirse." Sam growled to herself bitterly as she sat down.

"Who's Saoirse?" Came a voice from behind her. Sam hadn't realized she'd said the name out loud.

"No one. Someone I knew in my old school." Sam said dismissively. Ms. DiMartino came in.

"Hello, class. I got word from Ms. Karim this morning. She's going to be out another two weeks. So until then, I'll be teaching you. I hope you'll all write to her to wish her well during her recovery." Ms. DiMartino said. They all agreed and Ms. D started class. It was an interesting lesson about the French and Indian War. Ms. DiMartino had interesting information that most history books didn't teach. It wasn't anything too ridiculous. But it was obscure, and she really drew the class in with stories about individual leaders on both sides of the war.

She said that there was going to be a quiz in three days on the subject, and that it would be an essay, so they should take the time at night to study the subjects and get ready for the essay. When class ended, Sam went to Math with Luna and Mr. Ryan. She hadn't initially been in the same period as Luna, but a chance had been made. The order of Sam's classes didn't really matter to her, and it had to another student, who was apparently having an issue with another student. So Sam gladly switched with him.

She sat down, going over Pi one last time for the test. She had been studying hard for the test since she found out about it and was pretty ready. She was good at math, though this type of math was a bit harder for her than she was used to. Mr. Ryan came in and told everyone to clear their desks except for a pencil, an eraser, some ruled paper and a sharpener if they had one. He passed the tests to the front row and had them pass them back, telling them to practice breathing if they got nervous. That he had confidence in each of them. Luna sighed. She wasn't that great at math. But she studied with her parents to get it down.

Mr. Ryan was odd. He was extremely eccentric. But he was quite charismatic and really knew how to make the class comfortable by talking to them. He wasn't known for reaming students out if they were in trouble. Once the tests were all distributed, he had them turn them over and begin. Sam went through the basic parts of the test pretty easily. She had to stop sometimes and think about an answer. But she used some ruled paper and did her work on it. Finally, she got to the extra credit question. The first fifteen digits of Pi were a breeze for her. She'd done the song with Luna, George, Ruth and Finny.

3.14159 26535 89793. She went back over the song, singing along in her mind, doing each of the notes and writing down the numbers as she did. 23846 26433 83279 50288. Sam continued her singing of the song in her head. She was up to 35 digits. She was doing good. She was proud of herself. 3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 50288 41971 69399 37510 58209 74944 59230 78164 06286 20899 86280 34825 34211 70679. There, she was up to 100 digits. She was doing way better than she'd thought.

Sam kept going with the number. She was at 100 digits now. 82148 08651 32823 06647 09384 46095 50582 23172 53594 08128 48111 74502 84102 70193 85211 05559 64462 2948 95493 03819. Sam was up to 200 digits already. She continued on, getting up to 250 digits, finally turning the test over and sighing. Although she had a good memory, she was tired, having to pull all those numbers up. She'd spent hours working on memorizing the song. And she'd memorized out to 250 of the 800 digits they'd gotten the song to as a club. They'd written it down and gone over it again and again.

She was proud of herself. Even with her skill in math, she was really impressed she'd managed that. Soon, he told them to pass the tests up. While Luna had done better than she expected she would, she didn't get nearly as far as she'd hoped she would. She was able to get up to 60 digits in class. Though she had memorized up to 128 digits during study, she had forgotten past 60. Still, she'd done well and she passed the test up to the front.

Mr. Ryan took a brief look at the tests, nodding in some places and continuing on and smiled.  
"Okay. You guys are done for the day. The bell will ring… Now." He said as the bell rang. The class packed up and crowded out. Luna and Sam talked. Sam asked Luna what number she got out to. Luna sighed, saying she only got out to 60 digits. She was disappointed in herself.

"Where did you get to?" Luna asked.

"250." Sam said. Luna gasped.

"God damn, dude! That's righteous! That's like an extra 80 points…"  
"82. But yeah." Sam said. She was pretty confident that she did well on the test even excluding the digits of Pi. They had been specifically told that they couldn't use the digits of Pi to substitute for learning the material. The extra credit was there mostly for fun. If they did really poorly, suggesting that they hadn't studied, but they got a high grade because of Pi, he wasn't going to let them circumvent the purpose of the test. Sam and Luna both got that and they studied for the test itself together with the band as well.

Luna headed to History with Ms. DiMartino while Sam headed to band class. She had a great teacher named Mrs. Robinson. She joked on the first day that she wasn't Simon and Garfunkel's Mrs. Robinson. Sam still sometimes wondered why Saoirse had helped her buy a $1,500 violin. Had she felt bad about what the others had done to her violin? Or maybe she didn't feel bad, but she felt that they'd been out of bounds to do that. Or maybe she just wanted to embarrass Sam. Maybe it really had just been a way to flaunt how rich she was. Either way, she was glad she had the violin.

She sat down in her seat and rosined up her bow, tuning the violin and preparing to play the piece they were working on. Jackie sat down next to her.

"Hey, Sam. How's everything going?" Jackie asked. Sam shrugged. She said she was pretty sure she'd done well on a math test that day. She asked Jackie how she was doing. Jackie smiled.

"I've got a boyfriend now." The black haired girl said. Sam smiled.

"Really? What's he like?" Sam asked. Jackie blushed slightly.

"He's really sweet. He goes to a different school. His name is James Finnegan, but he likes to be called Finny. He's really sensitive and talented. He plays bass and drums and he sings." She sighed dreamily. Sam chuckled. She knew him. He was a member of their band.  
"He's a friend of mine. He's in me and my friends' band." Sam said.

"Really? Isn't his hair just so cool? He doesn't even care or comb it and it still looks so perfect! And he has such beautiful eyes! Don't you just wanna kiss those lips and never stop?" Jackie asked excitedly. Sam smiled, nodding. She couldn't tell Jackie that his weren't the lips she was curious about. She didn't know if she was exactly in love with Luna, but she felt a strange synergy with the brunette. She felt a connection with her, and she was curious what Luna's lips tasted like.

The teacher came in and handed out new music. They were playing Where Have all the Flowers Gone? In honor of Steve Seger, who had died just recently. She had the orchestra read through the music and get familiar with it, having the groups go over their parts. She then tapped her pulpit and had the orchestra start. It was a beautiful piece of music and Sam moved oldies music. She listened to Peter, Paul and Mary sing Where Have all the Flowers Gone and cried with it.

Sam took deep breaths as she played. Jackie was impressed at what a good violinist Sam was. She was so young, but she seemed like a natural. Sam thought that Jackie was good as well. They played through the whole period and then Mrs. Janzensin told them to remember to practice at home. She reminded them that they couldn't just come to band class and expect to be good. She recommended a half hour to forty minutes of practice each night.

-0-

Simon had started a new project in art class. He had a new canvas and was drawing out the outline, doing him and his old friends this time. But he also had Gil in the picture. He was calling it Old and New. He had his old friends that he loved. Alric, Noriko, Jimmy, Eddie, and Amelia. Simon was holding hands with Amelia, but he was looking at Alric. There was some symbolism in there, even if Simon didn't quite see it. And they were facing Gil, smiling at him. There was a heart in the background. He finished the outline of it and began to paint the background.

Ms. Sloane didn't believe in lessons. She believed that art shouldn't be structured. She believed that children shouldn't be exposed to art, that they should be taught to love art, and given space to decide what kinds of art they liked. So her class was basically the kids deciding what they would do and work on it. There was no good or bad art. As long as they participated, they would be given the grade. She didn't really believe in grading art as that implied that some art was better than others. But unfortunately, the school district required that they receive grades for their work.

So as long as they did the work, as long as they tried and showed that they cared, she would give them a good grade. There were some students whose art she personally liked better than others. And Simon was one of those extremely special children who showed incredible talent. Simon really was a prodigy in art. She had seen the finished piece of his sister. She had asked if he was willing to display it at the art show coming up in a month. Simon had adamantly turned it down though. He said he was giving it to Sam. That nobody else could have it. Ms. Sloane admired how devoted Simon was to his sister.

Simon was looking forward to the weekend. He was getting to meet Gil's family, and his friends were apparently coming to visit from Columbus. And he didn't know for sure, but he'd heard it implied that Sam's friends were coming as well. He couldn't wait. He missed them. They were starting to get settled in their new home and Sam was starting to recover, even if she was doing weird things like measuring her food and getting up at 5 in the morning. He could hear her going out of the house and she came back sweaty and took a shower and drank some coffee and had breakfast like nothing was different.

The week was almost over. He was happy the weekend was coming. As soon as art class ended, he put the work he'd already done up to dry and packed up to go home. He saw Gil hurrying towards his locker.  
"Simon! Wait! My mommy and daddy said that they're excited to see you! What time are you coming over?" Gil asked. Simon smiled and asked what time would be best for them. Gil said he would ask and call him back, asking if he could have Simon's phone number. Simon gave him his cell number and programmed it into Gil's own phone, heading back to his house.

He knew that Sam wouldn't be home yet. She was in band club until later and then she worked out or exercised in some way. She always stayed out especially late on Friday night.


End file.
